Loonatics Extreme: Sports Madness
by Station Square Guardian
Summary: Sequel to Loonatics Extreme. Mr. Leghorn is about to lose his empire to Swackhammer the IV, so he decides to ask Ace and his team to help him. But Swackhammer's team, the Monstrosity Crushers are not what they look like, and they will do anything to win.
1. The Deal

Welcome folks

Welcome folks! First of all, just like everyone around here, I don't own any characters of the Loonatics Unleashed, with the exception of my own original characters. And furthermore, let me thank you all for the support you've been giving me. To thank you all, I present to you, the sequel of my original story of the Loonatics, the "Loonatics Extreme" (for those who didn't read it, you better go read it, otherwise, you will probably don't understand this one), which I called, "Loonatics Extreme: Sport Madness". Plus, my good friend Ulyferal, will also help me with the story (if anyone has difficulties with their stories, and you need some help, go to her page and talk to her), and you are also welcomed to make suggestions for helping me make the story even better. Well, I think that's all I really wanted to say… Let's jet, people!

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LOONATICS EXTREME: Sports Madness

Chapter 1: The Deal

The Acmetropolis World Dome was known throughout the galaxy as the arena of one of the most incredible teams of Basherball of all time, the Acme Rangers. Excellent players have played for that team, including Drake Sypher, also known for his villainous deeds and for his ability to steal the powers from the original members of the Loonatics. But, the Acme Rangers are not the only team that plays in the arena.

The Acmetropolis Hurricanes, a basketball team, also played there and on this particular night, the game was for high stakes. If the Acmetropolis Hurricanes won the game against their opponents, the Glavatron Tridents, they would be one step closer to the title of the IBA League, short for 'Intergalactic Basketball Association'. In this league, the best teams from 12 galaxies competed among themselves for the title.

But the players also played for the opportunity of being remembered forever in the IBA's Hall of Fame. The Hurricanes were the favourites that night and the proof of that fact were the filled seats in the stadium and the many watchers from around the globe tuned in on TV.

As usual, Mr. Leghorn, the owner of the Acme Rangers, as well as the Acmetropolis Hurricanes, among other things, was also there; ready to throw the first ball into the court yard to signal the start of the game.

Besides being the most important name in the sports industry of the city-planet of Acmetropolis, Mr. Leghorn was also a successful businessman, owner of many enterprises. Although he was always busy, he felt it was his duty to be present at every game of his teams, not only to throw in the first ball, but also to show his support. He was dressed in his usual white suit and was waiting for the players to enter the court to begin the game.

Basketball evolved quite a bit since its creation, back when Acmetropolis was still called Earth, in the beginning of the 20th century. Over the years new rules were implemented, changes were made in the courts, and new kinds of equipment were being used by the players. The changes were done, with the intention of turning the original sport into a sport that most civilizations, all over the Universe, could play without any problems.

The changes made were the court size, which was now five times bigger than the original, the players used sneakers that had a gravity device, which was activated if needed, the ball was made from a special rubber that made it bounce a lot faster, making it very difficult to catch sometimes.

The biggest change was to the court itself by the use of powerful and realistic holograms which could duplicate the exact weather and geological conditions that existed in one specific place. One minute, the court was turned into a volcanic plain, and on the next one, it could be a huge glacier, or anything else.

Despite all the changes, the way you played the game was almost the same. Each team had five players in the game and the goal for victory was to score more points than the other team.

Finally, the two teams entered the court. The Hurricanes were wearing lime-green and grey uniforms with the emblem of the team on their shirts. The Tridents wore blue and white with their own emblem.

The Tridents were aliens called Glavatronians. They resembled fish-like humanoids and although their civilization lived underwater, the Glavatronians could breathe air. They were known as a gentle and humble people and highly respected people. Besides philosophy, music and poetry, their favourite national hobby was basketball.

The crowd howled when their teams came on the court. When the players were in their positions, Mr. Leghorn grabbed the ball and with a majestic swing of his arms, he threw the ball into the air. The ball was caught by the Hurricanes' captain, and the game was on.

The court changed into a desert, which was bad for the Tridents because they were not used to play in that kind of location. The Hurricanes were not used to playing in a desert either but they at least knew what to expect.

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard and a large hole appeared in the Dome ceiling. Pieces of it came falling down on some of the spectators causing a panic. Fortunately, no one was hurt, though panicked, the people had froze for one crucial moment and during that moment five tall figures floated through the hole and down to the court between the two teams. The five were aliens, each a different colour from the other, but were obviously from the same species. The apparent leader of the group looked around with disgust and announced loudly…

"Okay, guys… Let's teach these sissies how to play basketball!!"

All of them were quite tall. They were all dressed in red and black basketball uniforms with the number 00 on their jerseys and their names on the back. The three male aliens were built bulky while the two female aliens were more slender.

The orange male was called Blackjack and seemed to be their leader. He was very tall and quite bulky on the upper torso and arms and had no hair. His sardonic smile and red eyes gave him an insane look.

The green male was named Bourré. He was even taller than Blackjack and looked like a mountain of muscles. He was so muscled that his chest pushed the shirt to its limit. He had green eyes, a few tribal tattoos all over his body, and had red hair with a crew cut. His teeth were so pointy that he looked like a piranha, waiting to carve its teeth on a defenceless prey.

The red male was named Baccarat, and was the shortest and the leanest of the males, though he was still quite muscular. His legs and arms were quite long, when compared to his torso. He had red eyes and his smile, just like the smile of his partners, was quite sardonic, even maniacal.

As for the females, the blue one was named 21. She was the tallest of all of them. She had blue eyes and long blond hair. But her eyes had a fanatical look, making her look really insane.

The second female and last member of the team was Poker. She had purple skin as well as purple eyes. She had short curly dark hair. She was shorter than 21, but was as beautiful as her. They were very different from each other, but they had one thing in common, their smiles made them look really insane, crazy and evil.

"You got it, Blackjack!" Poker shouted as she swiped the ball from one of the Hurricanes and strong-armed him across the court like he was a rag doll and weighed nothing.

With the ball in their hands, they started to play with each other.

The two legitimate teams and the audience gaped for several minutes. 'Who were these guys?' was the same refrain flowing through all the watchers minds.

Not willing to let these intruders mess with their game, the two teams began to pursue the five. By unspoken agreement, the teams joined together against the intruders and began to play.

But despite their best efforts, the Hurricanes and Tridents couldn't get the ball away from the five. It was a shock to everyone as they watched their favourites get trounced so badly. In a matter of minutes, the five had scored seventy-five points without even breaking a sweat.

The five's stamina, abilities, and tactics allowed them to wipe the floor of the two teams. Still, like the good sportsman they were, the two home teams continued on gamely trying their best to defeat the invaders but to no avail.

Finally, Mr. Leghorn couldn't bear to watch any longer and stopped the game. He wanted to know who the heck these five players were and why they were here. He grabbed a microphone.

"Listen up, I say, listen up! Who are you and what do you think you are doing?" He demanded, making the unknown team turn their faces toward him, at the same time, a cloud of smoke hit Leghorn in the face, making him cough.

"They are with me, Leghorn." A voice said, coming from behind him.

When Leghorn turned around, he saw a small and rather chubby, bald dark green guy, smoking a cigar, with a rather diabolical smile on his face. Compared to Leghorn, the little guy was a midget. He was wearing a black and purple business suit, holding a cane in his left hand. He was none other than Mr. Leghorn's business rival.

"Swackhammer!" Leghorn exclaimed, surprised to see him there, in his private box seat.

"It's Swackhammer the IV, to you Leghorn." the businessman said. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I'm here to honour our deal."

"As a matter of fact you are. And what are you talking, I say, you talking about, Swackhammer? I don't remember doing any kind of deal with you, and believe me when I say that I would remember, I say, would remember that." Leghorn said, affronted.

"Let me put this in another way so you might understand it. It wasn't exactly a deal, it was a bet. You bet against me that your basketball team, the Acmetropolis Hurricanes would be able to defeat my team, the Monstrosity Crushers. If your team won the match, you would get ten percent of my empire, but if my team won the match, I would get your entire empire. We made the bet on my last business party in Nerdluck. I have to say by the looks of it, my team has just wiped the court with your two teams. Looks like I win the bet." Swackhammer declared with an evil grin as he blew another nasty smoke cloud into the air.

"I never, I say, I never would have agreed to such a thing! And you know it! Besides you don't have any proof that bet was legal." Leghorn fumed in annoyance.

"On the contrary, Leghorn, you agreed with it, and you even signed it. Maybe you don't remember it clearly, but you signed it. And I got all the proof I need on this disk here." Swackhammer told him, waving a small disk in his face.

Leghorn did not know how to react to that. He expected every kind of answer from Swackhammer, but not that one. He didn't know what the disk contained but felt it couldn't be good.

Needing time to think, he reached for his phone and called his head of security. He told him that he was going to announce the game was being cancelled and that everyone would get a refund. He wanted his security to insure everyone was taken care of and cleared the Dome quickly.

That done, he hung up and took up his microphone again and said:

"Attention, I say, attention. Due to problems beyond our control, this game is cancelled. You will receive a refund… a refund I say. Please exit the Dome quickly and quietly. Thank you for your patience." He clicked off the mike and turned to Swackhammer again.

"Perhaps we should discuss, I say, discuss this in a more private place. If you could do me the small favour of following me…" Leghorn said, as he politely as he was able under the circumstances, pointing the way out of his personal box seat.

"Certainly, after you…" Swackhammer said equally polite.

He and Swackhammer made their way through the many corridors in that part of the stadium. Finally, they arrived at Leghorn's office, which was more than a simple office. It was a giant suite that was built and decorated to hold social events, like press conferences and other things. It was equipped with a cocktail bar, a huge TV screen and there was a long table with many chairs all around it, in one of the other rooms. This last one was usually used by Leghorn for meetings with his associates and business partners. All in all, it was a very beautiful suite. They closed the door behind them, and then Leghorn went to the cocktail bar.

"Can I offer you something to drink? A scotch or maybe a glass of wine?" He asked as he got himself something.

"I think I will have a scotch, thank you." His guest said as he finished his cigar and accepted the glass from Leghorn. "First of all, I apologize for what my team did to your stadium… They like to do this kind of entrance. You don't have to worry; they will pay for the damages with money from their salary."

"Would you knock it off, Swackhammer! I know you don't care about what they did to my beautiful World Dome… so, let's just end this once and for all! What proofs do you have that I made that bet with you?!" Longhorn demanded impatiently.

"Very well, I tried to be polite but since you spurn my attempt, let me show you the undeniable proof of what I said." Swackhammer said as he got the disk from his pocket and inserted it a disk player that he had in his other pocket.

With a press of a button, the disk player started to display a hologram. At first, the image was not very clear but after a few seconds the image became as clear as crystal. The figures in the recording were Swackhammer and Leghorn, who seemed a little drunk. They were surrounded by several people, who looked quite interested in what the two businessmen were talking about. They were both talking and Swackhammer was holding a piece of paper in his hands.

"So, do we have an agreement, Leghorn?" The Swackhammer on the screen asked.

"You can bet everything, I say, everything you have… hic… Swackhammer! If my team… hic… defeats your team, I say, your team, I will get ten percent of your empire… And if… hic… your team defeats my… hic… team, you will get my entire empire! And believe me, when I say that… hic… I will be glad, I say, glad to… hic… get those ten percent from you." Leghorn heard himself say then his image signed the paper with a pen that he had in his pocket.

"We will see about that, Leghorn." The screen Swackhammer said and a moment later the hologram ended.

Leghorn was even more confused than before. He took a few seconds to figure out what had happened. Suddenly, it came to him like lightning in the head. He had drunk too much that night and Swackhammer, the sneak, took advantage, making him sign a crazy deal like that.

"You know quite well that I usually drink a little too much at those parties and do stupid things. As a lawyer, you know that when a deal is made there are certain things that have to be established. Both party's to any agreement must be sober and in full cognizance of their actions." Leghorn told him coldly.

"Not according to the Nerdluckian laws, my friend. And like you said, I'm a lawyer, and I know the laws of my planet." He smirked as he took a paper from one of his pockets and began to read. "According to Article 347, of the Nerdluckian Justice Codes, to wit: 'Any kind of agreement, contract or bet that is made on Nerdluckian soil, which includes the four planets of the Nerdluck system and all of it moons, is valid, whether or not both parties are in full cognizance of their actions.' In other words, even if I was drunk also, the bet is still legal, and there is nothing you can do to change it." Swackhammer declared firmly, smiling when Leghorn dropped his glass of whiskey on the thick carpet. His mouth gaping in horror and shock.

He quickly snatched the law from Swackhammer's hand and read it quickly. His shoulders dropped, it was all there in black and white. He was devastated. He had just lost his entire empire to Swackhammer and there was nothing he could do about it.

That is, until the little man approached him and said, "Hey, I'm a nice guy and I like giving second chances to people. So here's the deal…" He looked Leghorn straight in the eyes, "I want your empire but I want it fair and square. My proposition is this… your present team was completely squashed by my team, so I'm going to give you two weeks to come up with a new team to challenge mine. We'll have us a rematch on 'Swackhammer's Colossal Sports Moon' at the end of those two weeks. The winner will take what that contract says. I'll even allow you to train your new team there so you don't have to worry about it. What do you say… do we have an agreement?" He asked watching Leghorn closely.

"And what happens, I say, happens if I don't accept?" Leghorn said bluntly.

"Simple, you automatically lose your empire to me. As you can see, I'm giving you the possibility of winning it back, my friend." Swackhammer said easily.

"Then I accept, I say, accept your challenge… but only because I don't have any other choice." Leghorn said gloomily, sealing the deal by shaking his rival's hand.

" Excellent! Remember you have two weeks so I suggest you get started finding a team that can beat my Monstrosity Crushers." He warned. A grin of triumph on his face, he prepared to leave. "I must be going now… I wish you luck in your 'quest' Leghorn. Remember… two weeks." With that Swackhammer left Leghorn's office, closing the door behind him.

Leghorn heard him outside in the corridor, laughing like a maniac. He had good reason for his humour, for he'd put Leghorn between a blade and a wall. Leghorn knew even before he sealed the deal, that he'd made a deal with the devil himself.


	2. The Perfect Solution

Chapter 2: The Perfect Solution

Chapter 2: The Perfect Solution

Having made a deal with his rival Swackhammer to recover his lost empire, Leghorn was attempting to get really drunk. He was sitting at his bar in his suite and had already consumed a few scotches and one or two shots of Absinth.

He was totally oblivious to the sound of his door being opened. Leghorn's personal assistant, secretary and long time friend, George L. Barnyard strode in quickly and stared in concern at his progressively drunk friend.

George Barnyard, or G.B. as he liked to be called, was a little younger than Leghorn though no one knew that. He was shorter and had long brown hair that, at the moment, was tied in a ponytail, had a curly moustache, brown eyes, and a bulbous nose. He was dressed in a white and brown suit, with a black tie and wearing a pair of brownish-black moccasins. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, G.B. is actually Barnyard Dog's descendant, but I'm sure that you already knew that from its description).

Leghorn couldn't have asked for a better friend. George could always be counted on to be by Leghorn's side and listen to all his problems, whatever they were. He was also well known for speaking his mind no matter how painful the truth might be.

He'd been asleep when the security chief of the Dome had awakened him and said there was trouble and to come quickly. He didn't tell George what was going on so now he was here watching his friend get drunk. Leghorn didn't look happy and he wondered what could have happened to him to send him on a drinking binge.

"Leghorn! What's happened that's so bad it has you drinking to excess?" He asked bluntly.

"Aahh, George, my problems, I say, problems are so bad and huge that even this here drink is not getting rid of them." Leghorn slurred bitterly as he poured himself a martini with a slice of lemon.

"Come on Leghorn, it can't be any worse than the time you lost the contract to drill that planet which was a huge diamond in the Nexus Galaxy. Why do you think that this, whatever it is, is bad enough to have you drinking as bad as that time?" He asked flatly as he took a seat next to his friend

"This is an end of the world thing, far worse, I say, far worse than losing that. This problem that I have surpasses everything that you and I both have faced in the past." Leghorn asserted unhappily.

"So tell me what this 'far worse' thing was. Perhaps I can advise you." George coaxed.

Leghorn sighed hopelessly, downed his drink and reached for another as he spilled the whole sorry mess. How he had struck a deal with Swackhammer while drunk. Then how his rival had brought a team in called the Monstrosity Crushers that succeeded in defeating both his teams at the same time and in losing the game, ended up losing his empire to Swackhammer. He told him how his rival had given him another chance at getting it all back.

"But, but, but… That's completely absurd! He can't do that to you, and besides the law would not allow something like this to happen." George sputtered in shock.

"Unfortunately, the Nerdluckian laws allow it." Leghorn said miserably, as he showed his friend the law article. "It's all there, G.B., every single word that will give Swackhammer my entire empire, the empire that my great-great-great grandfather started." He finished bitterly.

"But from what you told me, you still have a shot at keeping everything and collecting ten percent of Swackhammer's empire. So, why are you weeping about it? He might have won the first battle, but he didn't win the war yet. You just have to find a new and stronger team than the Hurricanes, my friend." George said positively.

"You don't understand, I say, understand… Those five players of Swackhammer's are probably the best and most vicious basketball players in the known Universe. The five of them made both the Glavatron Tridents and "my" Hurricanes fools of themselves. In a matter of two minutes, I say, minutes, they had beaten them, without breaking a sweat." Leghorn said, shaking his head. "Here, G.B., let me show you just what happened tonight."

Leghorn picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Choosing the option of seeing the game that had been recorded earlier, he flicked it on. The secretary was astonished and stunned with what he saw. He expected them to be good based on what Leghorn had said but he was unprepared for just how good they were. They were good, but not that good. He quickly understood why Leghorn was so upset with what happened.

"As you can see, there's no way I can find, I say, find any better players than those guys. Each and every one of those five has the strength, stamina, speed, swiftness and agility of twenty, I say, twenty players combined." Leghorn grunted as he turned off the TV. "If I could find a player who was able to face them in a basketball game, in a week, it would be a miracle. But to find, I say, find five players, that's purely impossible!"

"I have to admit that they all played quite well… I've never seen such players like them before." G.B. admitted quietly. "They have a certain style about them and I'm surprised that their team hasn't played in the IBA League before. They way I see it, you might have to have a team with super powers to defeat them." G.B. said thoughtfully, joking a little to try and cheer his friend up

Leghorn gaped at his friend. Those last words had given him an incredible idea but had he heard his friend correctly?

"What did you just say, G.B.?" He asked, holding his breath.

"Ahh… what… you mean about how that team played? Well, I said they were excellent players and…" G.B. started to say in confusion before Leghorn interrupted him.

"No, no, no… Not that, after, I say, after that… About my team!" Leghorn exclaimed.

"Uh… well, I said you might need a team with super powers to beat those guys but I was just kidding, Leghorn." G.B. said wondering what was going through his friend's mind.

"That's it! That's exactly what I need to beat Swackhammer's team! I need a team of players, I say, players that have super powers!" Leghorn said excitedly. "With a super powered team, those Monstrosity Crushers, wouldn't have a chance, I say, a chance to win. Don't you see G.B? You are a genius! It's brilliant…" Leghorn was going on.

"But, what are you talking about? Where would you find a team with super powers, Leghorn?! I think you've already drunk a little too much, for your own good…" G.B. said in concern as he watched his friend, now on his feet and gesticulating wildly with his arms and shouting how brilliant he was.

"I may have been drinking but I'm not so drunk, I say, not so drunk that I couldn't have had such a brilliant idea. I know just where to recruit the perfect team." He said with a huge smile.

Still doubtful about what his friend was going on about, G.B. asked, "Okay, so where is this perfect team and who are they?"

"Why, G.B. they are none other than the Guardian of the Universe. I'll ask the Loonatics Extreme to help me. After all that's what they do, I say, what they do is fight injustice and protect the innocent as well as helping those in need. And in this case, I've been cheated and I'm about to, I say, about to be robbed… So I think that at least I have to give them a try!" He said, still excited.

G.B. waved his head negatively and grabbed the paper with the Nerdluckian laws, and almost shoved it in front of Leghorn's face.

"But according to the laws of the Nerdluck justice system, what Swackhammer did is legal. So, you don't have any kind of real reason to ask them to help you…" G.B. insisted.

"I don't care!! I'm about to lose, I say, lose my empire, and I'm not going to stand here, doing nothing, and waiting for the inevitable, G.B.!" Leghorn shouted, as he took the paper from his secretary's hands and ripped it in two, throwing it away. "I'm going to ask them for their help and that's final! Get me, I say, get me a direct line with their headquarters in Blanc, on the double!" He demanded impatiently.

G.B. sighed. He knew when Leghorn had an idea, nothing, not even the most powerful force in the Universe, would be able to make him change his mind about it. So, he just nodded affirmatively and went to the conference room and tried to get a connection to Blanc as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, on Blanc, specifically in the Loonatics Extreme Headquarters, the different members of the team were spending their free time doing mundane things, like doing laundry, chores, hobbies, or working out.

Duck chose to try on some of the outfits he'd ordered from different stores and asking his friend, Pinkster, his opinion on each one.

Though he knew Ace was resistant to the idea, Duck firmly believed they needed to change the look of the team just as they had changed its name. He felt they needed something with more character now that they were the Guardians of the known Universe. He firmly believed they need to update their outfits.

"So, what do you think, Pinkster, old buddy?" Duck asked his friend as he tried an outfit that made him look like a silly version of their old enemy Massive.

"I-I-I do believe that outfit makes you… makes you… makes you… It d-d-doesn't suit y-y-you well." Pinkster said carefully, trying hard not to laugh.

"Hmm… Maybe you're right. This suit doesn't show my best side… Well, what about that one over there?!" Duck asked as he pointed to a costume that was on top of his bed.

"T-T-That one makes you l-l-look like a c-c-clown… R-R-Remember that you y-y-yourself d-d-decided to put it a-a-aside?" Pinkster reminded him.

"Oh, you're right… it's not a costume that I would like to use in battle." Duck conceded.

While Pinkster had to put up with Duck's ideas for new costumes, Ace was in the living room, practicing yoga, which made him feel in touch with everything around him. Slam and Sylth were in another part of the living area, watching one of the many movies they had rented for the weekend. With a huge bowl of popcorn and Jumbo-sized sodas, the two of them had everything they needed to spend a quiet afternoon in front of the TV. There was only one problem… Slam was eating all the popcorn in the bowl and Sylth had to make sure he left some for himself.

"Listen up, Slam… The popcorn in the bowl isn't just for you, you know? You have to share it." He said firmly as he tried to take the bowl from the Tasmanian Devil's hands. "Your mother never told you that you that it's rude not to share what you have with other people?"

"Blrlaghalaghll… But I love popcorn!" Slam said pouting a bit.

"Well, I love popcorn, too, but you don't see me here shoving all of it down my mouth all by myself like you are, do you?" He asked as he placed the bowl on a small table in front of them.

Slam looked at his friend and team mate, a bit shamefaced. He took only a handful of popcorn from the bowl and tried hard to restrain himself.

Across the room, Ace had cracked an eye open and listened to the semi-argument for some moments, wondering if he needed to referee but was pleased when Slam managed to control himself and that Sylth relented and let him have the bowl knowing he could simply go get himself another one.

"That was very good Slam. Thank you. Here you take this one and I'll just make myself another one. Sorry I was so abrupt but I wanted you to see how selfish you were acting. Anyway, hold the movie while I get another bowl." Sylth said as he got up and made for the kitchen.

Slam smiled, shyly pleased as he took the bowl and dug in. Ace smiled and closed his eye again and returned to his meditation and Yoga.

Meanwhile, His Feathered Majesty, The Royal Tweetums was busy in a special room located near the top of the Loonatics Extreme Tower. The room was fairly good sized and held a conference table with all the things needed to hold meetings in it. This allowed Tweetums to meet with his advisors and conduct the business of taking care of his kingdom.

Since he'd become a part of the Loonatics Extreme, Tweetums divided his time between his duties as leader and ruler of Blanc and his job as a member of the team. Right now, he was talking to his advisers about increasing the size of Blanc's space armada and how to go about it. His advisers were using the hologram capabilities of the room to display models of the present ships in the armada so that he could determine what needed upgrading.

"As you can see, your Majesty, the space armada must be increased by at least fifty percent, so that we will not be caught unprepared should another invasion come our way again. At the present time, we are sadly undermanned and outgunned by most of the other alien races near us." One of his advisors said gravely.

"I truly understand your concerns, but disagree with your solution. You know that I and the Loonatics Extreme will be perfectly capable of protecting our beautiful world from those that would harm her as well as the rest of this little old Universe. With that fact in mind, I feel the armada requires only a twenty percent upgrade… Starting with an update of their armaments and going on to upgrading their engines." Tweetums said thoughtfully as he studied the hologram diagrams.

"As you wish, Your Majesty, so it will be done. Now, the next thing on the agenda is…" The head advisor began to move on to other business.

While Tweetums dealt with the demands of running a kingdom, Rev and Swift were competing against each other to see who was faster. Rev, as usual, was quite happy to have someone to race against, especially when Swift was as fast as the roadrunner himself.

They had decided to race in the south of the planet, where there were a lot of canyons, which were perfect for them to race through to test agility as well. Swift and Rev felt at home in those canyons, for they reminded them of the places where they had grown up.

"I hope you are ready to see me win this race, Swift, because I don't intend to lose, you know? When it comes to running in canyons, mountain trails and other rock formations, you're talking to the master! I mean, I could do this, even with my eyes shut! Or even better, I could do this with my eyes shut and running backwards while drinking a mint and strawberry squishy!" Rev declared as they prepared to take off.

"I don't think so, Rev. Back when I was in Mexicool, I was considered by the people of mi villa as the fastest mouse in a 200 mile radius, mi amigo. And now that I have super speed, I will show you that they were not wrong when they called me that." Swift said with a smile of confidence. "To bad Tech stayed in his lab… It would be divertido to have someone to comment our race."

"Well, you know how Tech is. When he's in the middle of something, he forgets about everything, including the time for lunch, which reminds me, I haven't had lunch yet either. It's not good for my health, or anyone's health to skip such a meal, which right after breakfast, is the most important meal of the day… Of course, we can always count on the brunch, which is a mixture between breakfast and lunch, but it's not what I could call a meal… So, what do you say, when we finish this race we head back to headquarters to eat? I'm starving!" Rev said excitedly.

Swift just laughed and nodded. They took off at the same time, flying away from headquarters for the south.

As for the girls, they all decided to spend their leisure time by doing things they had never tried or had time to experiment with. Lexi chose to practice her ability to control plant life. Mimi and Patricia decided to expand their artistic horizons.

Lexi had gone to visit the Palace's Greenhouse, because Tweetums told her that it was quite beautiful. It would be the perfect place for someone to get in touch with nature itself.

Since moving to Blanc, Lexi had visited quite a few places, including Blanc's Botanical Gardens which were enormous, compared to Blanc's Palace Greenhouse. Although it was smaller, the royal greenhouse had some rare specimens that the Botanical Gardens did not have. It was not open to the public it was quiet inside. The perfect place to relax, while putting ones thoughts in order.

She had decided to use her powers to flourish a few species of orchids that had been brought from different parts of the Universe. Some of them were quite beautiful, but others were inexplicably strange, but quite gorgeous also.

"There… These are perfect." She murmured to herself as she grabbed a Klaukasian orchid and smelled its intense and almost hypnotic perfume. "Now, let's see if I can do anything with the Blancanians Daisies. The poor little ones have been so neglected by the gardeners that they are starting to fade away."

While Lexi tried to use her powers to save a few flowers, Mimi and Patricia spent their time to their art. They were out front of their headquarters right near the entrance.

Patricia had decided to paint a female version of the Colossus of Rhodes and was using her sister as her model. Mimi used her powers to become larger, more muscled and taller. She had never used her powers for something like this before, it was fun actually and she was enjoying the form she had taken because it made her feel stronger and more confident about herself.

"Try not to move, sis… It's not easy to sketch you if you keep moving like that!" Patricia admonished her sister as she tried to sketch her.

"Sorry… but it's not easy to stay still, you know? I'm not a statue… I'm a piece of living rubber, remember?" She giggled, laughing at her own joke.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know, but an artist as myself, needs to be inspired by static objects, and… Uh-oh, we've got trouble." Patricia said suddenly as their communicators began to beep furiously.

"Looks like we'll just have to finish our art work later, sis. Come on!" Mimi said as she turned back to her normal state and hurried inside the tower followed close behind by her sister.

It was just a matter of minutes before all of the Loonatics had gathered in the communications room. Tweetums, Rev and Swift were the last ones to show up, all because Tweetums had to get rid of his advisors, and Rev and Swift being on the other side of the planet when the call came. They all sat down at the holographic display table and waited for Ace to tell them what was going on.

"We are receiving a call from Acmetropolis, folks… It's from Mr. Leghorn himself. Tech, could you connect the call, please?" Ace asked inclining his head toward the coyote.

"Sure thing, Ace." Tech said as he pushed a button activating the holographic display. The holding image flashed into existence revealing an impatient Mr. Leghorn.

"Sorry we made you wait, Mr. Leghorn, but I never discuss anything without my entire team present." Ace told the image.

Leghorn looked over the newly enlarged team. He heard about them adding more members but it was his first time actually seeing them. He'd been on a business trip to the Orion Galaxy when the attack on Acmetropolis occurred by Queen Granicus. He'd only learned about it when he'd returned home. His attention was returned to the present when Ace spoke.

"So, how can we help you, Mr. Leghorn?"

"The problem, I say, problem I need to discuss with you is too important to be discussed through a holographic transmission… I was wondering, I say, wondering if you could come here to Acmetropolis, so we can discuss this personally?" He asked them.

"Sure thing, Mr. Leghorn. We can be there in half an hour." Ace said agreeably.

"Very well, I say, very well. My secretary and I will be waiting for you in the Acmetropolis World Dome. I'll see you in half an hour, my friends." Leghorn said warmly then signed off.

"I wonder what could be the problem that he wants to talk with us in person?" Lexi asked.

"He's probably going to propose a deal to use us as the face of a new product campaign!" Duck said with an odd look in his eyes.

"Riiiiiiiight… You keep dreaming, Duck." Mimi snorted, annoying Duck.

"Do you know him, personally, Ace?" Sylth asked, curious.

"Yeah, we do, Sylth. When Massive tried to steal the Basherball Championship Trophy from the World Dome in Acmetropolis, Leghorn was so happy to get the trophy back, that he gave us a lifetime supply of Chili-Gurt, which Slam ate in no time at all." Ace said in amusement, seeing Slam lick his lips remembering that day. "But you're right, Lexi… I wonder what he has to talk with us about?" Ace questioned, thoughtfully.

"There's only one way to find out that, amigos! We'll have to go to Acmetropolis." Swift said.

"You're absolutely right, Swift! What are we waiting for guys? Let's jet… Next stop, Acmetropolis!" Ace said getting up and heading for the hangar, followed by the others.


	3. The Birth of a Team

Chapter 3: The Birth of a Team

Chapter 3: The Birth of a Team

Thanks to Wormhole Central, the Loonatics Extreme got to Acmetropolis in no time. The original members along with Pinkster, Patricia and Mimi felt that although they now lived so very far from their home world, something... call it fate... seemed to always draw them back to Acmetropolis. It seemed like they were never really gone from it very long so never really got a chance to miss it.

Soaring down into the atmosphere, Tech didn't take long to give orders to the computer to direct them to the World Dome. Only minutes later the Dome came into sight and he landed them besides the building.

They quickly disembarked and smelled the fresh air as they walked toward the entrance. As they approached the huge doors, they were shocked to see them hanging open and no security in sight.

A little uneasy, they stepped through and saw debris on the court and a huge hole in the side of the Dome. A cleaning crew was in the process of picking up and repairing the mess.

At that moment, Leghorn's personal assistant and secretary, G.B. hurried up to greet them.

"Thank you for coming as fast as you could… Leghorn can't get this idea out of his mind and I don't know what to do to calm him down, anymore… But, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is George Barnyard, but you can call me G.B." G.B. said in a rush. "I'm Leghorn's personal assistant, secretary and best friend."

"Nice to meet you, G.B." Ace said then pointed toward the damage, "What happened here? Mr. Leghorn insisted we had to come here to talk to him in person but never mentioned anything about that." Ace questioned.

"Well… Ahh… That's part of what Mr. Leghorn needed to speak to you about. Please… follow me." G.B. said unwilling to give them a hint of what was going on.

Ace and his team followed G.B. through the corridors of the Dome, not knowing where they were going to end up. As they walked, some of them tried to imagine what could be the reason for one of the biggest businessman in this part of the Universe to need to see them privately. Some wondered if the damaged Dome had something to do with it. Duck was especially curious as to what was up.

"Maybe he's going to use our image for a new product of his and he wants our permission… Imagine all the money that we're going to make with the selling of our image rights! I'm going to be… No, we're going to be millionaires! No, no, no… We're going to be zillionaires!" Duck thought to himself, as the images of his face on many products appeared in his mind, making his eyes shine in an odd way.

Finally, they arrived at the door of Leghorn's office. G.B. opened the double doors and let them enter ahead of him. Leghorn was waiting for them, seated on one of the sofas as he finished yet another cocktail he had made for himself. His face lit up with joy when the Loonatics crossed his threshold accompanied by his secretary. He sprang up from his seat.

"Ah… Loonatics! You don't know, I say; don't know how happy I am to see you here!" Leghorn exclaimed in a relieved and enthusiastic voice.

"Errr… We're happy to see you too, Mr. Leghorn. When you told us you had an emergency and needed to talk with us, my team and I came as soon as we could." Ace said, a bit leery of Leghorn's excessive greeting. "By the way, let me introduce you to our newest members. Sylth Vester, Pinkster, Patricia, Mimi, Swift and Tweetums." He said, pointing each out as he named them.

The newest members nodded or waved a greeting. Leghorn looked over the team, new and old, and a little smile crept onto his face. He felt even more confident that the Loonatics would be able to solve his problem now that they had increased in number. After nodding politely at each new member, he quickly got down to business.

"It's really, I say, really good to see that the Universe has six more avengers to protect it. But, where are my manners? Please, come in, I say, come in to my conference room, where we can discuss more privately, the reason why I called you here." Leghorn said, leading the way to a conference room that was through a doorway within his office.

"The Loonatics followed him and G.B. into the richly appointed room and quickly sat down at the huge oak table. G.B. closed the door and sat down next to his boss. As soon as everyone was seated, Leghorn pressed a hidden button beneath the table. A small hole appeared in the centre of the table and a couple of robotic arms started to distribute what looked like samples of products to everyone seated around the table. After finishing its task, the robotic arms returned to their hidden placed within the table and disappeared.

The Loonatics blinked in confusion at the array of products sitting before each of them.

"Lacto-cheese? Cherry Fizzorade? Are these new products that are going to be on sale soon?" Duck asked excitedly.

Slam, sitting to his right, opened the samples and, without hesitation, began to eat them. Within seconds he'd finished and burped loudly.

"Blagrghglagh… Pardon me." He said, blushing a bit in embarrassment.

"Yes… They are some of the new products that are going to be released over, I say, over twenty galaxies in the next few months, that is, if I still get to keep my empire by then." Leghorn said, a depressed look sliding across his face.

The Loonatics stared at him in confusion. What was Leghorn saying?

"Uh...exactly what do you mean 'if you still get to keep your empire', Mr. Leghorn?" Lexi asked for all of them.

"Well, it's a long story… Let's just say that I've got a problem, I say, a problem that is quite complicated and, well, I need your help to solve it. So before we go any further, let me just show you what's happened… G.B., the lights, please!" Leghorn grunted unhappily. G.B. turned off the lights and a huge TV screen appeared from behind one of the walls, turning itself on.

On the screen, images of what had been recorded inside the Dome appeared and they saw the team that had beat the Acmetropolis Hurricanes and the Glavatron Tridents in just a couple of minutes. None of them dared to say a word about what they were watching, not only because they did not know what fully happened, but also because there were no words that could describe the situation in a rather simple way. Finally, when the video stopped, Leghorn sighed and stayed silent.

"Wow that was really something, eh… Mr. Leghorn, just who were those guys?" Ace asked.

"Those were the Monstrosity Crushers, the team, I say, the team that beat my Acmetropolis Hurricanes and tonight's opponents, the Glavatron Tridents." Leghorn said grimly. "They appeared out of nowhere and beat both teams at the same time! As soon as they had done that, their manager appeared. It was Swackhammer the IV, my business rival. He came up to me and said I'd made a bet with him, a bet I say and he'd come to collect. The bet was, if his team beat my team I would turn over my entire empire and as you have plainly seen… I lost!" He exclaimed, waving his arms angrily.

"But… why did you even make, much less accept, such a bet, Senõr Leghorn?" Swift asked in shocked surprise.

"I was completely drunk at the time the bet was made. I don't remember, I say, don't remember doing such a thing… although, when I drink too much, I do stupid stuff I can't remember. This is the just the latest one…" He grumbled.

"If you were drunk when you made that bet, why didn't you just get it thrown out? No bet is binding when made by someone under the influence of anything." Patricia asked in confusion.

"Yeah, Patricia's right… I'm sure that Mr. Swackhammer the IV will understand that the bet can't be binding and be willing to let it go." Ace said also confused as to why this was a problem at all.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that" Leghorn said gloomily, sinking back down into his seat. "According to Nerdluck laws, this being where the bet was made, the bet is legal… I say legal and I can't do a thing about it. My rival gets my empire!" He said flatly.

"S-s-s-so where do we… where do we… where do we… And what does that h-h-have t-t-to do with us, Mr- L-L-Leghorn?" Pinkster asked, quite intrigued with all this.

"Well, those "Crushers" obliterated my team in no time, as you saw in the video footage. Swackhammer has given me another shot at keeping my empire… why, I'm not certain, but anyway that's how it is. If I can find another team with the strength, stamina, and determination to beat his team, I get my empire back." Leghorn said. "So I thought about you guys. I know that you are quite… I say quite busy keeping the Universe safe and all but if you could see your way to helping me by being my new basketball team, I would be very grateful to you all, my friends." He said pleadingly.

"In other words, you are asking us to be your team and beat the crud of those muscle mountains, in a basketball match, right?" Duck asked just to clarify what they were being asked to do. He was a little reluctant, not seeing how they could profit by doing this.

"Yes… The rematch will be in the Swackhammer's Colossal Sports Moon, in Nerdluck, and it will be his team against mine. If my team wins I not only keep my empire but I get ten percent of Swackhammers as well. But if I lose again, my empire is gone again but permanently…an empire that took two centuries to build. That's why I asked you for your help. Of course, I'll understand if you have better things to do. But remember, I say, remember, that I think you're the only ones who can beat them… If I don't come up with a new team soon, I'll lose by default to Swackhammer.

"Hmm… We need to have a discussion amongst us, first, if you don't mind." Ace said cautiously. Everyone had a stake in this and he refused to make a decision this important without hearing his team's opinions on it.

"Certainly… G.B. and I will be outside, waiting for your decision." Leghorn said, hope in his voice.

As soon as Leghorn and G.B. closed the door, the Loonatics gathered round and began discussing their options.

"Well, guys, this is an interesting pickle Mr. Leghorn has gotten himself into but what I want to know is, should we help him get out of it?" Ace asked, withholding his own opinion for the moment.

"Well, I think it's a waste of time! We're super heroes, not basketball players!" Duck said with a snort of disgust. "And here I thought he was planning to put my face on one of his new products."

"Typical Duck! Thinking about yourself instead of the problems of others!" Lexi said in annoyance. "Now unless you have something worthwhile to say bout whether to help Mr. Leghorn or not just zip it!"

"Well, though Duck is being typically selfish, Lexi… I'm afraid he is right about one thing. We are super heroes not basketball players. In fact, I haven't played the sport in years… come to think of it… last time I played the game was in high school." Tech said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's probably true of most of us but heck, they are going to train us and we have helped Mr. Leghorn once before. What's wrong with helping him out again? I mean, come on… it's only a single game after all." Ace said shrugging his shoulders.

"I agree with Ace… I can't remember the last time I played the game either but I think that whenever a person asks for our help, it's our duty to help, whatever the situation might be." Sylth said strongly. "Besides, those Monstrosity Crushers don't look very friendly."

"Sylth's right! Did you see the teeth on those guys? They looked like Freddy Kruger's razor claws or piranhas! Of course, with those teeth, I'm talking about really huge piranhas, or some kind of huge shark that is just waiting for someone to sink their teeth in someone. And those eyes… they look liked the eyes of a bunch of maniacs! Come to think of it, they should be named Monstrosity Maniacs, and not Monstrosity Crushers, because although they crushed the competition in a matter of minutes, they have that maniac look in their eyes, which makes them really scary!" Rev said in his usual fast paced speech.

"They really had an evil look about them though the girls looked a bit friendlier." Mimi observed. "They may be strong but I think with out abilities we could take them out easily enough."

"I'm afraid that's an inaccurate summation, Mimi. According to my research into the Nerdluckians, there is a small fraction of their population that is capable of copying the abilities of their opponents simply by touching them. Some centuries ago, the entire species had this ability but it has gradually disappeared from the gene pool so now there are very few being born with the ability today. I would make an educated guess that the Monstrosity Crushers is made up of these rare few with the talent. I believe the strategies and abilities they used to defeat Mr. Leghorns teams were not their own but stolen from other teams. If my theory is correct, then whoever tries to challenge them will find it difficult if not impossible to defeat them because they will be using the talents of their opponents against them." Tech told them seriously, a look of concern on his face.

"But, isn't that… you know, illegal, Tech? To use that power to copy other people's abilities sounds almost like that those nasty players are cheating." Tweetums exclaimed, repulsed by the thought of someone cheating to win no matter what the sport.

"Unfortunately, according to the rules of the game, it's not illegal for them to use the abilities natural to ones species. In other words, what they are doing is completely legal Tweetums." Tech said unhappily.

"Well… If they're that good, how come they aren't playing in the IBA League? I've never heard of them, until now." Duck asked, frowning.

"Because they play in other leagues, including the Nerdluckian Basketball League, or if you prefer, the NBL… It's one of the toughest leagues in that part of the Universe, and although they have the talent to overcome any team that is in the IBA League, they have never tried to enter in it. Plus, they only play with teams from other leagues when Mr. Swackhammer wants a piece of the fortune from the owner of a specific team." Tech said grimly.

"T-T-Then that m-m-means that what Swackhammer is d-d-doing isn't the… isn't the… isn't… it means that w-w-what Swackhammer is d-d-doing to Mr. L-L-Leghorn, he's already d-d-done to others." Pinkster said outraged. "T-t-t-t-hat's unethical and borders on blackmail."

"Blagrgalagahlgh… You're right!" Slam blurted, slamming a fist onto the table.

"Soo, we're finding out a lot about this Swackhammer the IV that's really underhanded. You know what guys? I think this has just become exactly what our job is… fighting injustice and it's becoming very obvious that Mr. Leghorn is getting shafted." Ace said, becoming angry himself. "Tech, what else you got on this creep?" He turned to Tech and asked.

"Give me a second, chief." Tech muttered as he researched further on his computer. "Got it! It says here Swackhammer is descended from a line of successful businessmen. His family's empire began with his ancestor, Swackhammer the I, who built huge amusement parks, all over the Milky Way and beyond… "Moron Mountain" being the largest. His family created an empire that covered nearly every industry out there, from mining to state of the art computer technology. Swackhammer the IV has focused his energies on sports. He owns nearly two dozen teams, including the Monstrosity Crushers. He attended school to become a lawyer and he's considered a very shrewd one. His profile shows an individual who is always in control, whether in court, managing his teams or making new deals."

"Sounds like a very cunning and smart individual. Not an easy person to beat." Patricia said thoughtfully.

"To me it looks like Mr. Swackhammer loves the game of taking others for a ride. It's probably the only fun he has in his life… making life miserable for others while making incredible amounts of money and power for himself. It's obvious to me that he's using his usual tactics to take Mr. Leghorn's empire." Ace said musingly. He paused a moment and stared around at his team.

"I say we help Mr. Leghorn keep his empire. While we're training, we investigate this Swackhammer character and see if we can dig up evidence that what he's doing is illegal. We win the game and maybe get lucky and stop this guy cold… preventing him from ever doing this to others again. What do you say?" Ace asked.

The team thought about it a moment, looked into each other's eyes to see what they might be thinking then Lexi spoke up.

"I agree! I think this guy is dirty and we need to stop him. Count me in!" Lexi said bluntly.

"I'm in! I'll begin researching a way to keep those Crushers from copying our powers and look into Swackhammer's dealings more and see what I can find." Tech said firmly.

Well, you're not going to put our name on the sports world, without me, fearless leader… I'm going, because my fans will never forgive me if I don't help you out." Duck said, already imagining the idea of being remembered as one of the best stars in the Universe.

"Blaragahglgh… I'm in!" Slam said.

"We're totally going to be heroes! I mean, we already are heroes, but we will be considered heroes in more than just that way. We'll be basketball stars and of course, it will be fun to play that sport, even if the game is for real rather than just for fun. I don't know if I told you guys, but I'm actually a good basketball player and I'm really excited to go on this mission! Also, I'll help Tech dig for information on this guy." Rev said excitedly.

"Well, I may not be as excited as Rev, but you can count on me… Take me to the ball game, my friend." Sylth said with a grin.

"If the good old putty tat is going then I shall go too… I must be there to represent not only the Loonatics but also, to represent my beautiful little planet!" Tweetums said firmly, giving Sylth a look.

"I-I-I'm also… I-I-I'm also… I-I-I'm also… You can c-c-count on me, too. If D-D-Duck's going, then, I'm r-r-right behind h-h-him." Pinkster said with certainty.

"Me and my sister are ready to go and kick some alien butt, Ace!" Mimi said with a fist in the air.

"And play basketball too, you know!" Patricia chimed in.

Nearly all of them were in agreement except for Swift. Throughout the discussion the little Mexicoolian mouse had kept quiet as he listened to everyone have their say. Concerned, Ace looked at his team mate.

"Eh...you've been awfully quiet there, Swift. Is something troubling you?" He asked.

"Ah...well… I… I have to say I've never played this game called basketball before. I will do my best to learn and be an effective part of the team. I'm just not so certain that I'll be very good." Swift said a little self conscious.

"I have no doubt that you'll learn quickly and be very good at it. Never fear!" Ace said encouragingly. "Just remember, these guys are dangerous and it will really be more like fighting their powers than actually playing the game. We are going to need all our skills and team work to defeat them but I'm determined that we will win and beat them at their own game." Ace declared as he stood up from his seat.

The rest cheered and got up to follow him out the door to the waiting pair outside the room. Leghorn and G.B. stood up quickly when the Loonatics came through the door toward them.

"So what is, I say, what is the decision?" Leghorn asked anxiously.

"We're going to help you, Mr. Leghorn. We don't know how to play basketball, at least not at a professional level, but we're willing to learn." Ace told him.

"Wonderful, that's the best news I've gotten in a long time. As for not knowing how to play, don't you be worrying about that. I'll personally arrange a trainer to teach you how to play and all the tricks that exist. I know you'll do your best to beat those Monstrosity Crushers." Leghorn said gratefully.

"So… what are we getting paid?" Duck piped up.

"Duck!!" The others roared at him in disgust.

"Heh heh! That's okay, I say, okay, folks. You'll be paid exactly what I pay my top teams. Also I'll be providing everything you'll need while you're in training for the next two weeks. By the way, you'll be training on Nerdluck… that was one of the rules Swackhammer stipulated as part of the deal." Leghorn explained.

"Not that we aren't grateful, Mr. Leghorn, but we'll just allow you to pay for our accommodations on Nerdluck, and nothing else." Ace said firmly. "So, when do you want us there?" He asked.

"Tomorrow would be perfect! The sooner you start training, the better. Once again, my friends, I thank you for helping me in my time of need." Leghorn said.

"No need to thank us, Mr. Leghorn. We're just doing our job." Lexi said, waving off the thanks.

"In that case, I'll see you tomorrow in Nerdluck, my friends. I'm sure you all have to pack up everything you need for the trip." Leghorn told them then turned to his assistant. "G.B., please escort them to the exit, if you don't mind."

"No need to trouble yourself, sir. We can find our own way out. Thanks. See you tomorrow." Ace said politely.

The Loonatics exited the Dome and made for their ship. As they boarded and took their seats, Patricia asked something that had been puzzling her.

"Ace, why didn't you tell Mr. Leghorn that we intend to investigate his business rival while we're trying to win the game for him?" She asked.

"Mr. Leghorn has enough on his mind right now and its better that he doesn't know. He can't accidentally spill info if he isn't aware of. Someone might overhear and tattle to Swackhammer and I don't want to give that guy anything he could use against us or hide what he might be planning. Call it a precaution if you will. I intend to keep one step ahead of him as we do our investigation." Ace told her. "So from here on out, keep your eyes and ears open. Also watch what you say to each other, make sure no one can overhear you!" He cautioned them. "Especially you Duck!"

"Hey! I can keep a secret just as well as you can!" Duck objected angrily.

The others just rolled their eyes knowing that wasn't true. Tech started the engines and they were soon heading for space once more.


	4. Nerdluckian Reception

Chapter 4: Nerdluckian Reception

Chapter 4: Nerdluckian Reception

The Loonatics hurried back to their headquarters and packed enough for two weeks. Each person took one suitcase a piece except for Tweetums who took an unprecedented ten cases. Duck, who normally would take several suitcases, actually settled for one this time. Tweetums team mates grimaced at all the cases he was taking but he didn't care. He always planned for the unexpected and decided to take a third of his wardrobe on this trip.

"I honestly don't know why you're taking so many things with you. We're only going to stay there for two weeks, not two years!" Duck exclaimed, as he watched Tweetums royal guards load his suitcases aboard.

"You never know what might happen, Duck. I have to be prepared, in case we meet an ambassador or someone from the royalty. I would not think to show my little self in front of them without the proper clothing." Tweetums said firmly.

"I still say that it's a waste of space to carry so many things with you." Duck muttered.

Tweetums just ignored him.

After everything was packed and ready to go, Ace gave the order to depart. Tech was already aboard. He had spent the time loading some extra armaments and some spy gear and now waited for the signal to leave. Once Ace gave it, he set the coordinate for Nerdluck into the master computer that was linked to Wormhole Central. Very quickly they were on their way.

From their comfortable seats, the team watched as Tech piloted the ship out of the planet's atmosphere and aimed for the now opening wormhole. The trip to Nerdluck took less than two minutes. Soon they were soaring toward Nerdluck's atmosphere.

Nerdluck was a huge planet with seven moons, one of them was artificial. This was Swackhammer's Colossal Sports Moon, the largest of the moons. Their ship sailed smoothly through the ether toward the moon's atmosphere. As soon as they reached the planet, Tech disengaged the computer and piloted the ship manually through the atmosphere and put it on a level flight path then set the autopilot for their destination.

"It will take us about ten minutes to reach our destination, Ace." Tech informed everyone.

"Excellent, Tech… This will give us time to prepare our strategy. So, have you discovered anything more about the Monstrosity Crushers or Swackhammer?" Ace asked him.

"Well, I wasn't able to find out any new information beyond what we already knew… just some curious facts and the Crusher's profiles, which I think will be very helpful when we plan our game strategy against them.

"Hmm, well not much to go on so I guess we're going to have to dig up some more while we're here. So, let's see what you did get, Tech." Ace ordered.

"Right!" Tech took out a disk he had inside his suit and inserted it inside one of the slots in the computer console. After a few moments, a hologram swirled into being. The five members of Swackhammer's basketball team appeared. Although they were just holograms, they still made the team's skin crawl… the Nerdluckians were really creepy to look at.

"Here they are, guys… The Monstrosity Crushers." Ace said unnecessarily.

"They really look like monsters… the kind you would only see in horror movies." Patricia observed, as she studied the images.

"Yeah, they don't look friendly… so tell us, Tech, who is who in this gruesome group?" Ace asked the coyote.

"Well, first, we have their leader… Blackjack." Tech said as he caused the hologram to pull the image he was describing forward. "He's the brains of the outfit, so to speak. He's quick on his feet and has fast hands as well as being very smart. His signature move is the 'Pump Fake'. This is a pass commonly used by players but his version is a lot more complex." Tech ordered the computer to play a video. Displayed was Blackjack doing his signature move.

"Whoa, now that's nasty." Ace commented, the move was rather brutal and very effective. "So, this guy's the leader, huh? Well, he sure is big…"

"But not nearly as big as that guy, Ace." Lexi said pointing at the green Nerdluckian in the background. "Who is he?"

"That is Bourré… he's the muscle for the team. In fact he's all muscles and no brains at all. According to his profile, his type of game is quite offensive. He has been considered one of the most dangerous players of all times because, when he gets angry, he has enough strength to destroy a concrete wall, with one punch. Blackjack is able to control him and Bourré obeys all the orders he's given and doesn't deviate from them." Tech explained.

"T-T-That m-m-may be… T-T-That m-m-may be… T-T-That m-m-may be… We c-c-can explore t-t-t-that weakness and u-u-use it to our a-a-advantage." Pinkster said confidently. "W-W-What's his s-s-signature move, Tech?"

"Well, in Bourré's case, it's the "Give and Go" move, which consists of passing the ball to a partner and then running as fast as you can to receive the ball back. It's definitely one of the most effective moves in the game." Tech said.

"Then, what about the girls, genius?! I bet that those two don't have the strength to smash a fly, let alone throw a ball!" Duck said sarcastically as Tech enlarged the holograms of the two female members of the Crushers.

"If I were you, Duck, I would think twice before saying that…" Tech warned.

"I think he should think twice before saying anything and not just that, you know, amigos?" Swift laughed, giving everyone a knowing look, making Duck angry because he didn't know why they were all looking at him like they knew something he didn't.

"Oh yeah?! Why should I think twice when it comes to talking about those two girls?!" He demanded angrily.

"Because they may look like beautiful roses, but they have thorns, really spiky thorns, if you catch my meaning… This one here is called 21 and she's quite good when it comes to blind-passes, so called because she's able to confuse defenses with them. Her signature move is called the 'Hook Shot'. A devastating shot that, because she's so tall, she never misses. As for the other female, she's called Poker. She's as mean and powerful as Bourré, but she's smarter, and doesn't really need anybody to give her orders because if given the shot, she'll work without the need of anyone's assistance. Her signature pass is the "Slam Dunk", one of the most appreciated and fantastic moves that a player can do. Most of the time, when she attempts her signature move, she slams the ball into the basket so hard she breaks it." Tech said grimly.

"Beautiful and dangerous, now that's a nasty combination!" Sylth said with guarded admiration for his future opponents.

Duck just grumbled to himself as he stared at the deadly beauties.

"So who's the pink one, Tech? I would really like to know since he looks too much like a gremlin, although they were nothing more than the fictional beings created for a movie, I think that one would be a perfect match if they had really existed. Except for that hair of his, it makes him look like a Mohican, a really bad haired Mohican, who looks like a pink gremlin!" Rev babbled in his hyper-speed way.

"This "little guy" here is called Baccarat, Rev. He's the fifth and last member of the Monstrosity Crushers and though he might not look like the most dangerous of the team, he is the quickest and most difficult to catch. His signature move is the "Around, Back, and Through", or just "ABT", and he's probably the only one on the team who can do it, because he's really fast, and almost unbeatable when it comes to this pass." Tech said.

"So you're telling us that even without the need of absorbing other people's abilities, they're still five tough cookies. Hmmm… This is obviously going to be a lot harder than we thought at first." Mimi said thoughtfully.

"Blrhalahlghrgall… Definitely tough cookies!" Slam agreed solemnly.

"Yeah, you're right about that, Mimi. Fortunately, we have a special weapon that they don't have." Ace said confidently.

"And what would that be, Ace?" Lexi asked, giving her leader a frown.

"Simple, Lexi, its Tech! If there's a person in this universe who can come up with a way to stop them, it's him." Ace said firmly, and then turned to the coyote. "By the way Tech, have you thought of anything to stop them?"

"Well, I have to admit that I've been giving it some thought and I think I've come up with the solution to our problem but I'll need some time to develop it. I'll keep it secret until it's time to use it so that no one finds out about it." He said cautiously.

"That is quite thoughtful of you, Tech. That way, those bad, bad basketball players won't have anything to use against us!" Tweetums said excitedly.

"I second that, chicken fingers! You never know what these guys could come up with just to win this game!" Sylth admitted.

Suddenly the computer gave a warning beep. Tech knew this meant they had reached their destination. He quickly switched to manual control and cruised over the landscape. As they passed over, they could see the moon had a large area that was industrialized, with many factories located in one area. The rest of it was for entertainment; casinos, hotels, arenas for other sports and a surprisingly large number of stadiums that were huge. The Loonatics had never seen sport infrastructures so massive in their life. Compared to these, the Acmetropolis World Dome was nothing but a kiddie-ride.

Using the GPS, they tracked the position of Mr. Leghorn's ship and followed the signal. After a while, they finally reached the meeting point. This was in the biggest stadium located on the planet and was, of course, called 'Swackhammer's Interglactic Colosseum'. It had a very futuristic design but it still bore some twenty-first decorative motives on it. It was so brightly illuminated that they could see its name in huge holographic red letters from a great distance

"Well, Swackhammer sure loves to see his name in everything that he owns" Ace said with a snort, as he looked at the building and its huge red holographic letters. "Are you sure this is the place, Tech?"

"Absolutely, Ace. According to the GPS, Mr. Leghorn's ship is parked down there. I'm sure that he'll be expecting us." Tech assured him as he headed down and soon was parking their ship next to Leghorn's.

After shutting down the engines, Tech opened the main doors and everyone disembarked. Swift and Rev were the first ones out. Rev was really excited about seeing such a huge building. Swift thought it was amazing too but not as much as his friend because there were building this huge on his home world Mexicool. The rest of the team ogled the structure in admiration… impressed by the size of the building and its architecture.

"The only way Swackhammer could have built something like this is if he was really rich. This place could hold 50 Acmetropolis World Domes inside, or even more." Lexi whispered to Slam standing next to her.

"Blagrhagalagh… Really rich!" He commented, duly impressed.

"Rich or not, he's not going to impress us, guys. We came here on a mission so we need to stay focused and let nothing distract us" Ace said, grabbing their attention. Suddenly he was interrupted by a familiar voice that came from behind them.

They turned and saw Leghorn, followed by G.B., walking up to them.

"Thank God, you've arrived, I say, arrived safely, my friends. Swackhammer was starting to think I was joking when I said that I'd contracted… I mean, I've asked you, I say, asked you to be my new basketball team." Leghorn said, laughing a bit in relief.

"So, tell us, where's the big cheese who owns this place?" Duck asked, obviously referring to Swackhammer the IV.

"He's inside, I say, inside, waiting for us, along with his team. I think he'll be quite surprised when he sees you, guys! But, don't just stand there, come on, follow me, follow me." Leghorn said urgently as he led them back where he had come from.

Following Leghorn, who seemed more excited than a bee inside a honey hive, the Loonatics, followed by G.B., quickly entered the building through the VIP entrance. They were guided to a large room. It was decorated with the most expensive and most refined objects that money could buy. The walls were painted in gold. The marble columns had the most incredibly carved drawings they had ever seen. Sitting around the room were statues of diamond in every corner, a beautiful chandelier was hanging from the ceiling and a thick red carpet covered the entire floor.

One side of the room held long tables filled with the most delicious appetizers and refreshments a person could find in that part of that galaxy. Sitting next to one of the tables, drinking a glass of champagne and smoking a cigar, was Swackhammer the IV, waiting for them. Leghorn led the Loonatics to his opponent and introduced them.

"Swackhammer… here's my new team, the Loonatics Extreme. I bet you were wondering, I say, wondering if I was blowing smoke, right?" Leghorn crowed, smirking at his rival.

"I have to say, Leghorn, I never thought you would be able to afford to contract a team such as them, you know? So these are the Loonatics Extreme, huh? It's a pleasure to meet you all." Swackhammer said with a cynical smile on his face, as he blew a cloud of smoke into the air, which hit Ace in the face, making him cough.

"It's really… cough, cough, cough… a pleasure to meet you too, sir… cough, cough…" Ace choked from the smoke.

"I've heard much about you and your team, my rabbit friend. You have done some extraordinary things in your home world and now you are prepared to play basketball for Leghorn, am I right?" He asked.

"Yeah, you could say that…" Ace said easily.

"Well, then, I'm sure you won't have any problems beating my team, especially with your powers, heheheh." Swackhammer laughed. "Please, enjoy my hospitality. This was made for you, my friends. I'm sure you're hungry. When you've finished eating, I'll introduce you to my team. I know they are looking forward to meeting you just as much as you are looking forward to meeting them."

The Loonatics were a little leery of such a grand demonstration of good will by Swackhammer. From what they had found out about him, he was a scoundrel of the worst kind but at this moment he was behaving like a perfect gentleman.

Ace couldn't help but be suspicious but kept his feelings hidden and played it cool. He turned to his team mates.

"Well, you heard, Mr. Swackhammer, guys. Dig in!" He told them.

That was all they needed to hear. Every Loonatic decided to try every type of food that existed in the room. Slam looked like a garbage disposal throwing everything he could down his throat, without even tasting it. The others, decided to take it easier, and started by tasting the delicious sweets, then moving toward the other dishes, that looked delicious.

Robot waiters appeared and asked what they would like to drink. Ace and Lexi asked for a glass of carrot juice, while Mimi, Patricia and Sylth asked for a glass of milk. Tech and Rev decided they would have something more rich and asked for two vanilla milkshakes. Swift decided that he would have an icy mojito, while Slam decided that he would have a huge jug of cherry soda to go on with a delicious cherry pie he was eating. Finally, Duck and Pinkster decided they would have a glass of the finest and most expensive champagne they had in the place, although Pinkster hadn't really wanted any but Duck forced him. He felt they were being treated like super basketball stars they had better act like ones.

After they had eaten, Swackhammer conducted them through the immense labyrinth of tunnels and stairs. They had no idea where they were, or where they were heading to, except that they were going up.

Finally, they passed by a huge a window and could see the interior of the building. They were on the top of the building. When they looked down, it felt like they were on the ridge of a canyon. Thousands and thousands of seats covered the balconies, arranged in five rings and down at the bottom of the rings was a huge basketball court.

As they looked around they noted some builders on the ceiling, soldering a few things. Tweetums became quite interested and decided to ask what they were doing up there.

"What are those little old men doing up there, Mr. Swackhammer?" He asked politely.

"They're repairing the upper infrastructure of the Coliseum. My team usually plays with such ferocity, that the Coliseum shakes a lot causing some of the beams and ceiling tiles to crack. We have to check for damages every week and make repairs so that none of the ceiling will fall on our spectators." Swackhammer explained.

"Isn't it kind of dangerous for the people to be sitting up here if the ceiling could crumble down on them?" Lexi asked in concern.

"No need to worry, my dear. As you see in the corners there..." He pointed to some strange black boxes located about every ten feet above the fifth ring of seats. "Those contain sophisticated warning devices that will activate a shield should the ceiling begin to crumble preventing any accidents. My greatest objective is protecting the public and entertaining them." Swackhammer assured her proudly

He gestured for them to continue on and, after walking for another few minutes, they reached a huge elevator and entered it. It went down and when the doors opened again, they found themselves stepping out onto the huge court.

The view from down here was amazing and completely different from the one they had from upstairs. The view itself made them all feel so tiny and insignificant. Ahead of them as they walked across the court were the five members of the Monstrosity Crushers.

The team was resting on the benches, talking to each others. They seemed quite relaxed and only noticed they had company when they noticed the smell of their boss's cigars. Blackjack turned his attention to the group that was walking up to them.

"It's the boss!" He commented, getting up, his team following suit.

"Hi there, Blackjack! I'm here to introduce you to the team you're going to be playing against in two weeks. Meet the Loonatics Extreme." Swackhammer told his captain, gesturing to the team coming up behind him.

The Crushers studied the Loonatics silently. The Loonatics did the same. They couldn't shake the sensation of being looked over by a bunch of predators. No one said anything until finally Swackhammer spoke up.

"So, what do you think of them?" He asked in a more sinister voice. A definite departure from the one he'd been using with the Loonatics. It sent shivers of warning down their spines.

"Are you telling us that we are going to play against these puny little guys, boss?!" Bourré asked with a snort of derision.

"Who are you calling "puny", ugly?!" Duck snapped, insulted.

"What did you call me, bird?!" Bourré snarled as he stepped up and shoved his angry face into Duck's.

"I called you "ugly"… Haven't you seen yourself in the mirror lately? Because you really ugly, ugly! Besides, you look like a despicable guy!" Duck said fearlessly.

"Oh, then do you know what you look like, Duck? Dinner!" Bourré said with a deep growl, his look one of a wolf studying his next meal.

Duck shifted a little nervously but didn't back down.

Before anything could happen, Blackjack roared a command. "ENOUGH! Bourré! Get back where you were and don't get any idea." He ordered firmly, shoving his team member back.

"Yeah! Get back to your place, or next time, I'll teach you a thing or…" Duck stupidly began to taunt.

Suddenly, someone put his hand on his Duck's beak and clamped it shut. It was Pinkster, who saw that if Duck didn't shut up, they all would get into trouble.

"S-S-Stop it, Duck, or you will b-b-be… or you will b-b-be… or you will b-b-be… or you will get us all into t-t-trouble." The pig hissed at him, forcing his friend to calm down before he would release his bill.

Annoyed by Duck's behavior, Ace quickly spoke up to smooth over the moment.

"I'm sorry for what Duck said. He can be a little annoying, sometimes, doc." He said.

"No worries." Blackjack said easily. "Bourré gets angry over just about anything. Still his comment was right… you're a bunch of puny little guys!"

"Little packages can be just as dangerous as big ones. Don't underestimate us!" Patricia said plainly.

"Wow! The kitty has spunk as well as claws," 21 commented in amusement. "Listen up, sister, you don't know who you're messing with."

"Really, why do you say that?" Tech said mildly.

"Have you ever heard of the 'Dream Team'? Well we're the 'Nightmare Team'!" Poker bragged with a dark laugh.

"Yeah, the 'Nightmare Team'!" Bourré snickered evilly.

"What kind of a nickname is that for a basketball team, anyway?" Sylth asked arrogantly, pretending not to be impressed by their airs.

"A nickname that is only used by the best basketball team in the Universe, pussycat! But you don't get it do you? We're the Monstrosity Crushers! M-O-N-S-T-R-O-S-I-T-Y C-R-U-S-H-E-R-S! We have this name because we crush teams like yours and eat what it's left of them for breakfast!" Baccarat growled from his perch atop 21's shoulder.

"Now, now, now… Wait there, I say, wait there a second! Why don't you all just keep all the energy that you're wasting by arguing with each other and use it in the game in two weeks? What do you, I say, what do you say?" Leghorn interrupted, attempting to break up the hostility before anyone started to trade blows.

"I agree with you, for once, Leghorn. They should keep their energies for the big game, that is, if your team knows how to play, of course." Swackhammer said with a sly questioning grin.

"Don't worry we'll know what to do." Ace said calmly.

"By the way, where are we staying?" Duck asked casually.

"Why, you'll be staying here, my friends. The Swackhammer's Intergalactic Coliseum is not only a basketball stadium but a hotel as well. Only VIP's are allowed to stay but since you are the visiting team, I'm happy to accommodate you while you're here. Besides it will be more convenient for you since you will train here as well. There are more than ten basketball courts besides the main one." Swackhammer told them.

"But I had already reserved, I say, reserved rooms in the Nerdluck's Ritz for them." Leghorn objected. "I'm sure that they don't want to impose on you, Swackhammer."

"It's okay, Mr. Leghorn. We would be delighted to stay here, Mr. Swackhammer. As you say it is closer to the practice court for us." Ace said smoothly, turning to his team and giving them a small wink. Being here would allow them to spy on Swackhammer and the Crushers more easily.

"There, you see, Leghorn? Even your team agrees with me. So with that settle, you'll please excuse me and my team. We've some issues we need to attend to. One of my robot servants will escort you to your quarters in a minute or two." He told them politely as he walked off followed by his team. "I'll see you all tomorrow." He said over his shoulder.

As they moved off, Ace and his team followed them with their eyes. None of them really trusted the owner or his team. Now they knew the Crushers were as bad as they seemed. They would have to be on their guard at all times.


	5. Accomodations and Trainning

Chapter 5: Accommodations and Training

Chapter 5: Accommodations and Training

The robot servant didn't take long to arrive. It led them to the elevator, which they piled in, then sent them to the 15th floor. Moments later, the doors opened to another corridor. Following the robot servant, they went walked down the corridor filled with doors until they stopped at one of them.

The robot servant opened it and stood to one side to let them enter. They were amazed to see they had been put up in a sumptuous suite. No expenses had been spared. The entry way had a luxurious and beautiful marble fountain. The main room had doors that opened to individual bedrooms with a bath for each of them, each room with a different style and colour and size of bed.

The living room was decorated with expensive furniture and the top brands of electronic equipment, like a huge plasma TV, DVD players, entertainment centre, game machine with a selection of CDs, DVDs and games.

As they stepped from the marble entryway into the room proper, they noted thick baby blue carpet under their feet, the ceiling was painted a pearl white with drawings all over it, the walls were coloured the same as the ceiling and had valuable paintings hanging here and there. In one corner of the room was a bar equipped with fridge and microwave. Near the windows there was a large dining room table with a beautiful floral arrangement in the centre of it. Along one wall was a large oak desk with a computer and printer sitting on it.

They just stood there and gaped. Leghorn was amazed. His places were luxurious but nothing like this.

"Wow! What a place!" Ace finally managed to say.

"Now this is luxury!" Duck chortled, rushing to look over the games selection.

"Looks like, we're happy with the accommodations." Ace smirked in amusement at Duck's antics.

"Your luggage will be delivered very soon, sir. To summon room service there is a phone on the desk and an information sheet on everything you'll need to know about this hotel." The robot said politely.

"Thank you." Ace said.

The robot nodded and turned to Leghorn and his assistant G.B. "I will take you to your rooms now, sirs." It said.

"Well, then, I'll see you, I say, see you in the morning, Loonatics. Try to get some rest today, because when you meet your personal trainer in the morning, you're going to, I say, going to need every little bit of energy you got." Leghorn told them then turned to follow the robot to his and G.B.'s quarters. The door closed quietly behind them.

As soon as they were alone, Ace narrowed his eyes and looked around. He signalled Tech to do a security sweep. Everyone but Duck, who was wandering around the room, waited to see if Tech discovered anything.

"I can't find anything so I think it's safe for us to talk, Ace. There are no cameras or microphones inside here that I was able to detect and even if there were, my magnetic powers would have shorted them out." Tech reported.

"That's good to hear but I want everyone to be very cautious outside these rooms. I spotted no less than ten cameras, just from the elevator to this room. That means we have to take care slipping in and out of this room when we want to go snooping around. Maybe use the window instead. I want you to double check this room every time we return to it, Tech. Just because there are no security devices now, doesn't mean there might not be later." Ace warned. Tech nodded in agreement. "Good, so let's make ourselves comfortable. Okay guys?" Ace sighed as he made for the couch.

"Way ahead of you, ó fearless leader." Duck said happily as he already sat on the couch flicking the TV on and drinking a soda.

"Where did you get that, Duck?" Mimi asked.

"The mini-bar, of course. You should see all the cool stuff over there!" Duck said excitedly as he sucked on his soda.

The grouped wandered over to the bar to check it out. Suddenly there was a knock at their door. Rev zipped over to it and answered it. It was another robot with their luggage.

"Well, guess we should pick a room and unpack." Lexi said coming back to the door and picking up her suitcase.

Everyone thought that was a good idea and left the bar to get their cases and select a room. There was only a brief moment of dissension when Duck wanted the biggest room that Ace had made a move toward. Sighing mentally, Ace gave it up to Duck knowing arguing with the stubborn bird was useless. He ended up taking a nice room done up in Japanese styling.

Lexi took a room that resembled a fairytale Princess', Duck's was modelled on Julius Cesar's Roman quarters with white columns and matching furniture. Slam's was a recreation of a 50's Malt Shop with a fully functional soda counter to make milkshakes. Rev's room was by far the coolest. It was decorated to resemble an uninhabited planet. The bed was in the shape of a crater, the furniture looked like a space station.

Tech's was done in a laboratory motif. It made him feel right at home. Sylth's room was a tiny replica of Venice with the buildings from there and the appearance of canals designed in the carpet. On one wall a fresco of the ancient city was painted in loving detail with a gondola and its boater in the centre floating on real water just below the image. It ran across the wall in a decorated trough. The water circulated endlessly making a soothing swishing noise

Tweetum's room was truly the most unique of them all. The walls were aquariums, even the floor. Fish of all types swam around in all the aquariums making it seem Tweetums was in a fish bowl. He had a waterbed that made him giggle when he jumped on it, making it bob up and down like a ship at sea.

"I really like this little old room! It's the perfect place for little old me to watch the fishes as if I was underwater." Tweetums giggled happily.

Pinkster's room looked like a 70's Discotheque; fully decorated with jukebox's all over the place, equipped to play different types of music. The bed itself was surrounded by a light animated floor. Mimi's room resembled a library with books on all subjects on the many shelves and heavily cushioned chairs against the wall. The carpet was thick and stopped all noise. The colour was pleasing and there was a big bed with a bookcase headboard and an excellent reading lamp.

Her sister, Patricia's room was a jungle. Plants of all descriptions were in decorative pots all around the room. Ivy hung from the ceiling and surrounded the bed like a curtain. The carpet was multi-coloured camouflage that resembled a jungle floor but soft instead of ruff.

The last Loonatic to take a room was Swift. Mechanisms moved and ticked on nearly every wall so that he looked like he was within a huge clock. Though there was the constant sound of ticking and whirring, the Mexicoolian mouse was rather pleased with his room and the sounds didn't bother him at all. The bed was soft and comfortable and had the shape of a sprocket.

After getting over the novelty of their rooms and unpacking their suitcases, they all decided to take a nap, except for Ace and Patricia, who decided to discuss their strategy for snooping around later that night.

"It's too risky, Ace. There are cameras all over the place. I'm surprised they don't have cameras or microphones inside the suite!" Patricia said, shaking her head.

"Maybe we can't but I'm certain Rev and Swift would be able to. No surveillance device made can capture their fast moving forms. Though I wouldn't put it past Swackhammer to have some new kind of device that could slow down the image and catch the guys. It's a risk we'll have to take and hope we don't get caught. I still think they could run down the side of the building from outside our window. I doubt there's any kind of surveillance devices out there." Ace said slowly, going over his options

"Hmmm, well that might work; we could also have Tweetums go through the ventilation shafts. No one really knows about our new abilities and with his size changing capabilities, he could get around pretty well. He would be able to find out anything suspicions and let us know so that we could check it out." Mimi said, thoughtfully.

"Sounds like a good plan. We'll discuss it with the others when they wake up. We'll also have to discuss how we'll cover for our missing team members as well." Ace decided firmly. "Now that we have a tentatively plan laid out, let's you and I catch some Zzzzs."

Several hours passed as the tired Loonatics slept. When they woke, evening had fallen. Ace picked up the phone to order dinner and was told Mr. Swackhammer had already ordered a feast for them. It would be delivered within the hour.

Ace hung up and looked at the others, a frown on his face. "Seems our host is determined to impress us. He's already ordered a feast and it should be here soon."

"Huh! Looks like Mr. Swackhammer likes to treat his high-class customers like royalty." Lexi commented.

"It's not that difficult to believe, Lexi. We do have royalty among us, remember?" Duck said pointing at Tweetums. "Not to mention the smartest and best looking duck in the universe." He bragged.

Lexi snorted. "I agree with you on the first but on the second, I think your ego is going up into your head at the speed of light." She said sarcastically.

Duck just scowled at her.

Only ten minutes later, a knock was heard. Slam opened it to reveal a group of robots with trays of food. They zipped in and laid an incredible feast on the dining room table. Hamburgers, pizzas with every kind of ingredients and toppings on them, meatloaf with potatoes, French Fries, roast beef, pork chops with rice, rice pudding, veal with mashed potatoes, cauliflower and carrots, among many other things plus there was a slew of exotic dishes like Zerbubian Salmon with Quail Eggs, Stuffed Kirkilian Pineapple with Peanuts and Chestnuts, Berlian Garlic Stew, Fried Iridonian Calamari and Blancanian Spinach Quiche, which was Tweetums favourite dish.

Placed on the bar, the robots left an assortment of drinks and desserts. Finished, the robots all left except one.

"We wish you a pleasant evening and hope you enjoy the meal. Simply summon room service and it will all be cleaned up. Here is a message from Mr. Swackhammer the IV. Good Evening." It said handing an envelope to Ace then leaving them alone.

Puzzled, Ace opened the envelope and pulled out a letter written in gold ink. He read it aloud to the others.

'Dear Guests, I apologize for not being able to join you for dinner tonight. An unexpected emergency has pulled me away. Please enjoy the many delicacies I've provided you. Have a good evening and I will see you all in the morning. Please don't hesitate to ask for anything you want from room service, it is on the house. A robot will lead you to your training area at eight in the morning. Yours Truly, Swackhammer the IV.' Ace finished and looked at his team.

"It was quite nice of him to send us a little message." Tweetums said.

"Maybe… but you never know if he's planning something. I wonder what the emergency was?" Ace said thoughtfully. "Tech, is the food safe to eat?"

Tech pulled out a small scanner and went to the table full of food. He ran the scanner over everything and studied the screen. He was looking for any kind of poison, hallucinogen or toxic substance that could hurt them. After a few minutes, he turned off the device.

"Food's clean. I guess Swackhammer is not going to try and poisonous us, tonight, chief." He reported.

"Good, but we've got to be on the look out for anything!" Ace warned his team. They all nodded solemnly.

"Blagahrgahgalahgh… Can we eat now?" Slam asked, eyeing the food hungrily.

"Sure, Slam, but be sure to leave some for us!" Ace snorted then said, "Dig in everyone!"

There was a mad rush for the table. Slam was on cloud nine with the amount of delicious food on the table. Everyone filled their plates with a little bit from each serving, then taking their seats and dug in. The food was incredible.

When everyone had eaten their fill, even Slam. Ace called and very quickly robots returned and cleared the area. When they were left alone again, Ace gathered them together to discuss their plans for snooping raids. It was decided not to try spying tonight. Rev and Swift said they would be willing to make the attempt whenever Ace gave them the word. Tweetums agreed going through the ventilation system was a good idea and was willing to do it. With that out of the way, the group broke up and made for their rooms except for Ace, Tech, and Pinkster.

They sat in the living room and discussed their game plan for tomorrow as well what to expect from Swackhammer. They knew the tycoon couldn't allow them to win. He simply had way too much to lose.

"This Swackhammer is a really dangerous and sneaky character. He has enough money to do anything he wants and that makes him even worse than the most evil of all our archenemies combined. He keeps us off balance by treating us like royalty but I just know it's a cover for what he's really up to." Ace said with a frown.

"I-I-I agree! T-T-There's definitely s-s-something fishy around here. I k-k-know that… I k-k-know that… I k-k-know that… I admit that we are a v-v-very s-s-special team, but I-I-I never heard of anyone treating the o-o-opposing… the o-o-opposing… the o-o-opposing… the visitor team better t-t-than the home team." Pinkster commented.

"We have to be extra-careful. We'll have to be on our guard at all the times and see if Swackhammer or the Crushers try anything underhanded. Plus, I'll have to come up with a way to keep them from absorbing our powers, so that way we can have a certain advantage against them." Tech said firmly.

"Good idea, Tech. Well, we'd better get some sleep. Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow!" Ace said as he got up and stretched.

All three headed off their rooms. The rest were up for a little while longer, some even ordered snacks but by eleven o'clock, everyone was fast asleep.

At 7 a.m. all of them were awakened by the unpleasant ring of the telephones that were in each room. They were told this was their wake up call, ordered by Mr. Leghorn, and that a robot would be up by eight to guide them to their training area.

Yawning and sighing, everyone got up, showered and dressed. Breakfast was already waiting for them in the living area so they paused to eat a hearty meal. There were plenty to choose from: eggs, toast, fresh fruit, juice, bacon, and cereals of every description with milk. They could get really spoiled by this kind of service.

They had finished and washed up by the time the robot showed up to take them to Basketball Court number four. The elevator took them down to level nine and when the door snapped open they saw a large basketball court with the number four emblazoned on the walls.

As they stepped out onto the court, they saw Leghorn and G.B. coming toward them with another person. The stranger was tall and muscular with spiky blond hair, wearing a white t-shirt, red shorts and black tennis shoes. He looked like a Greek god. They suspected this was their new personal trainer.

"Good morning, I say, good morning, Loonatics. I hope you had a nice night of sleep?" Leghorn asked, in a good mood.

"It would have been nicer if you hadn't decided to wake us like that…" Duck growled irritably. Definitely, not a morning person.

"Don't mind him, Mr. Leghorn. He's usually grumpy in the morning." Lexi smirked.

"So, who's the hunk?" Patricia asked looking the new guy over and blushing a bit.

"Oh, him… Well, G.B., why don't you, I say, don't you introduce our friend to the team?" Leghorn said smiling broadly.

"Sure, Leghorn." G.B. grinned. "Loonatics, meet your new personal trainer and basketball coach, Marc Jones."

"Howdy, folks! Before we all start your training, I have a speech I like to give to all the new players I coach. Why don't you sit yourselves down on that bench there and we'll get started." Jones said briskly.

The Loonatics went to the bench as ordered. When Jones saw they were all seated and he had their attention he began.

"First of all, it's a great pleasure to meet you all. I was selected by Mr. Leghorn to train you for the game that you will have against the Monstrosity Crushers in less than two weeks. Basketball is not a game of strength but of speed and agility and quick thinking." He said firmly. "Now… most basketball teams train years to reach perfection. You will only have two weeks. Because of this, you will have to learn many things in a very short period of time so it's important that you pay very close attention to all I'm going to teach you. You'll be learning a lot of complicated plays and you'll need all your wits to win over these killing machines. Believe me, I know these guys all to well and they won't make things easy for you." Jones said solemnly.

"Well, not making things easy for others, is our specialty, doc." Ace said cheerfully. "As for the training, were all used to tough training sessions."

"Whatever you got for us, mister, we will overcome it!" Duck said cockily.

"That's good to hear… but, first things, first, I'll have to know which of you knows how to play basketball?" Jones asked with his hands on his hips.

Reluctant at first, no one made a move but, finally, Rev, Tech, Ace and Lexi raised their hands.

"Okay, four of you know how to play basketball, while the others know the rules, but don't know how to play… Hmmm, it's gonna take a lot of work for me to put you all in shape." Jones said shaking his head worriedly. "But, hey, don't you worry… I'm sure that you all will give your best. Besides, this is just a practice. Come on; let's start with a few moves!" Jones said moving onto the court, the Loonatics rose to follow him.

But before they could actually do anything, Swackhammer appeared with a bunch of people trailing behind him. These were dressed in white lab coats and carrying metal cases. Behind them were two security officers, wearing black suits and armed with stun batons and guns.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but before you start your training, there are a few things I forgot to mention. We need to examine your blood." Swackhammer said politely, while lighting a cigar, as the guys in lab coats opened their cases.

"What do you mean, I say, mean by "examining", Swackhammer?" Leghorn demanded, affronted and trying to wave the nasty cigar smoke away.

"It's nothing for you to get upset about, Leghorn. According to Nerdluckian Basketball League or NBL for short, rules, all players must submit to a blood test to check for any illegal drugs or stimulants that could give them an unfair advantage over the opposing team." Swackhammer explained easily. Blowing a cloud of smoke in Leghorn's face he said, "Sorry old friend but those are the rules."

"First of all, I am not, I say, not your friend, Swackhammer, and if it's the rules, well, there's no point in arguing, I say, arguing them. Right, guys?" Leghorn asked, looking at the Loonatics.

"You're absolutely right, Mr. Leghorn. Come on, guys, let's do this quickly so we can go back training." Ace agreed, leading his team to the lab guys.

Quickly and efficiently, the lab techs withdrew a rather sizable amount of blood from each of the Loonatics. Tech frowned at that and asked why. One of the techs said it was necessary to have enough samples on hand to test for a variety of drugs. Though he went along, Tech knew this was definitely not right. He would have to tell Ace later about his suspicions.

Lexi thought it odd that the blood samples were being guarded so carefully, but did not said anything to not raise suspections about anything. Swackhammer bid them goodbye and was soon gone from the court. Putting that unpleasantness aside for now, they prepared to focus on Jones and their training session.

"Well now that bit of annoying business is over you should all get to training." G.B. said quietly.

"Yes, we will leave you to enjoy yourselves, while G.B. and I attend, I say, attend a few personal matters, my friends. I wish you, I say, wish you a good training session." Leghorn said warmly then headed for an exit door with G.B. close at his side.

"Okay, folks… The first thing we must do are some warming up exercises. So, I want you all to run 60 laps around the court, with the exception of the road runner and the mouse there. You will do 1000 laps around the building itself and then come back here. Since you two are the fastest pair around, I know you'll not even break a sweat doing even that much. On your mark, get set, go!" Jones barked.

Like a shot, the Loonatics took off around the court. Swift and Rev vanished for only a few minutes before they were back waiting beside Jones who simply shook his head and sent them back out again for another couple of thousand laps. When they were back, only five minutes later, he let them be and watched the others. In another ten minutes, the rest of the Loonatics had finished.

For another fifteen minutes, their coach had them do some callisthenic then they were finally warmed up enough to begin the real training. After demonstrating some of the basic moves for basketball for the benefit of the ones who had never played, he had them learning how to use the ball in some basic moves, dribbling, passing, running, dashing… doing it over and over for hours until their bodies could do them in their sleep. They only took a brief sandwich break before beginning all over again. It was gruelling since it was different from anything they'd done before.

By the time they quit for the day, they were exhausted. Even Rev, Slam and Swift felt tired since they had been required to hold back their speed and do things at the speed of the rest. The training day had lasted some twelve hours. They may have fought some tough battles before but by the time they finished with the days workout they wished they had been beaten up by one of their villains instead of simply learning to play a game.

"Good work out guys! Run lightly around the court for a bit to cool down and you're dismissed until tomorrow. Be prepared to train even harder then with a lot more power behind it." Jones told them.

"More! I thought this was the training itself and now you're telling us this was nothing compared with what you got for us tomorrow?!" Duck squeaked in outrage.

"Pretty much, Duck. This was just the tip of the iceberg. We're going to train harder and harder as each day passes, so you better get used to it." Jones told him with a snort.

"I knew I should have never volunteered myself for this despicable mission!" Duck grumbled as he trotted around the court.

"Nobody really forced you to come, Duck." Mimi laughed as she ran near him.

After finishing the lap, they said goodnight to Jones and made their way back to their suite now that they were familiar on how to get there. They dragged their butts back to their rooms, many opting to use their tubs to ease sore muscles before joining everyone for another nice but not as large meal. They watched some TV to see what had been going on while they were at practice.

"Mr. Leghorn contracted us a tough coach, that's for sure. I know our training sessions are tough, but he's made us sweat more than our danger room has." Ace said in admiration.

"You know, O' fearless leader, he could have told us he was going to contract not only the best, but also the toughest coach he could find in the phone book." Duck said in a tired sarcastic tone as he channel surfed.

"I don't really mind that he's tough… sure, my body's aching and I'm exhausted, but the fact that he's a hunk, makes my mind just forget about everything else." Patricia said dreamily.

"It's safe to say our kitty-cat is in love!" Sylth snorted in amusement.

"I'm not in love with our coach, Sylth!" Patricia exclaimed, throwing a pillow at him. "He's cute and handsome is all."

"Right, and that's why you're in love with him!" Mimi laughed, teasing her sister.

"I'm not, just smitten! And don't think just because you're my sister I won't throw a pillow at you too!" Patricia said firmly.

"You wouldn't dare!" Mimi laughed holding her arms up defensively.

Grinning sneakily, Patricia hurled a pillow at her sister. Laughing, Mimi tossed a pillow at Patricia. Laughing, the others just smiled in amusement at the girls antics then decided to crawl off to bed and get some much needed rest.


	6. Snooping Around

Chapter 6: Snooping Around

The next morning started just like the previous one. They all got dressed and had a good breakfast because they knew heavy training was waiting for them when they got to Basketball Court Number Four.

When they arrived, Marc was already waiting for them, seated on one of the benches. He was holding a sheet of paper in his left hand which had the different exercises they would all be doing during the training, written on it. After trading good mornings, he told them to start their warm up exercises.

When he deemed them ready, he split them into two teams of six and had them play against each other, to see what they could do with the ball. One team, with Ace as the Captain, had Duck, Patricia, Tech, Rev and Pinkster. The second team, with Slam as Captain, had Mimi, Lexi, Sylth, Swift, and Tweetums.

"Okay, folks! The rules are simple; the team that scores the most baskets will be the winner." He told them gruffly, tossing the ball to Ace. "We're only going to use the main court for the time being. I think you're not ready to play in the holographic mode as yet, but believe me; you will have to learn it. The real game will be in that mode and it won't be easy. Anyway, let's get started! Show me what you got!" Marc barked then blew his whistle shrilly to signal the start of the game.

Immediately, all the Loonatics focused on their main goal, stealing the ball from the person who had it. The game was very well contended and it was difficult to see at first who would win it. Using their natural abilities combined with their powers, all of them played well, and in the end, Ace's team won by two points. Marc applauded all of them, as he blew the whistle to end the game.

"Not bad… Not bad at all! You guys are remarkably fast learners, not only in your game skills, but also in the way you use your natural abilities and powers to play the game and take the upper hand in a tight situation. It certainly doesn't hurt you having excellent team work skills as well." Marc said, with a pleased smile on his face.

"Well, thanks. We have to admit, it's not been easy. We're giving a 110% to getting the training done as quickly as we can but we hope to do even better with time." Ace said, pleased as well at their progress.

"I'm glad to hear that, Ace and I hope you can give me 200% real quickly since we really don't have a lot of time left before the game." Marc told him.

Ace just nodded in agreement then Patricia asked him a question.

"Marc! I was wondering… will we be able to see the Crushers training? It would help if we could see what we are up against." She asked. Her voice so sugary and sweet, it left no doubt just how much she was in love with Marc. Her team mates had to fight the snickers and looks of amusement from their faces so they wouldn't embarrass her.

"Oh, you are going to watch them practice just not yet. I don't want you to see some of their crazy stunts and get depressed. It's bad for the spirit. When you're more skilled, you'll be able to watch them with an impartial eye." He said plainly. "Now, I'm going to get a soda. Why don't you all take a quick rest then we'll get back to work even harder this time. Be back in a minute." He said, as he walked off toward a cooler he had on the sidelines.

When he moved out of hearing range, Ace signalled everyone to come closer. He had a plan in mind.

"Listen guys! We don't have much time before Marc comes back, so here's the plan… Rev is going to do a fast speed look around for anything suspicious. Tech is right; the amount of blood they took from us could be used to do something underhanded against us by Swackhammer." He said grimly. Looking at the roadrunner he said, "Check out Swackhammer's office first, that is the most likely place he'd hide his plans. Make it fast, Rev!"

"Roger, Ace. I'll be as fast as lightning. I just have one tiny question. How are you going to hide the fact that I'm not here, while I'm snooping around? I'm fast but if I'm delayed because I've found something, then you have to cover for me." Rev said cautiously.

"I have the answer to that, Rev." Tech responded, taking something from his pocket and holding it out for everyone to see. "I call this device a 'Holocube'. It will create an exact duplicate of you that can interact with us just as if you were actually here. The only problem is it will only last about twenty minutes but at the speed you move around that shouldn't be a problem. I'll activate the moment you're gone." Tech said proudly.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Rev exclaimed.

"Very impressive, Tech, but will that little old thing really work?" Tweetums asked, a little doubtful.

"Of course it will, Tweetums. Just you watch. Better take off Rev." Tech said preparing to activate the device. "Remember to keep an eye on the time. Check your watch! It's 12:03… mark!" Tech said looking at his watch.

"Got it! Rev said matching his watch to Tech's then taking off running faster than a blur.

The instant Rev disappeared, Tech activated the cube. Instantly, a perfect replica of the road runner appeared. If the coyote hadn't told them it was a hologram, they would have believed it was the real Rev who was standing right in front of them.

"Blagrgalagaghlagh… It looks just like Rev!" Slam said in amazement.

"Well, of course, it does, because I am Rev, or better, I am Rev's holographic copy, because I'm certainly not Ace or Duck's copy. I'm really equal to Rev, like two drops of water, if you catch my meaning. There isn't a single difference between the both of us, and I guess you already noticed that, because if I was not equal to Rev, you would probably not be as surprised as you looked when you saw me." The holo-Rev said with the same fast paced speech pattern as the real thing.

"Sufferin' succotash! It even talks just like him!" Sylth exclaimed.

"I made him look just like Rev in every aspect, although I've got to admit, it was hard getting his speech mannerisms just right." Tech said, pleased by their response.

"Great job, Tech. Oh, oh, here comes Marc." Ace warned.

Marc walked back to their side and began training them on dribbling techniques.

Meanwhile, the real Rev was speeding through multiple corridors, always on the alert for security cameras that might detect his presence as he searched. When he found them he had to pause until they were turned away from him before super-speeding past. This, of course, made his progress through the complex take much longer.

"I only got nineteen minutes and twelve seconds to find Swackhammer's office. I've got to find a map somewhere that could lead me to it faster. He kept searching until he finally got lucky. He came to a wall that held a large directional map that detailed most of the important places within this place.

He kept a weather eye on anyone seeing him as he studied the map.

'Now where is Swackhammer's office located?' He muttered to himself. It took him less than ten seconds to finally find it.

He took off again speeding through corridors, avoiding security guards, cameras, and the people that worked here. Soon he found his way to the main lobby where two elevators were located. He paused a moment in thought.

'Though it might be faster, I also risk being spotted faster and I'm sure there are cameras in each car so… guess there's only one way to go.' He thought to himself. He looked for the fire stairs and found them about ten feet away. He quickly rushed to them, pulled the door open and paused again. He looked around and saw a camera up on the next landing. Frowning he made a decision.

'This is really the only way up so I'm going to have to run as fast as I can and hope security thinks it's just a blur on their camera from a glitch.' He thought with a sigh. 'Hopefully, it is only lightly monitored.'

Decision made, he ran to almost supersonic speed up the stairs to the floor the map had said was where he would find Swackhammer's offices. When he reached the right door, he halted and carefully opened it a crack to peer out.

This time he found guards. This floor was heavy with security. Top of the line cameras were mounted or hovered everywhere and added to that were four, heavily, armed guards before a door down the corridor from where he stood.

'Well, obviously I hit the jackpot! A floor this heavily guarded can only be very important.' Rev thought grimly. 'It also looks like I'm not getting in that way without causing a riot.' He thought in dismay. He studied the problem for some moments until an idea struck him. 'The duct work!'

Looking around he spotted an air duct just over his head. He carefully undid the latch and crawled into it, being sure to close it behind him. He couldn't risk moving as fast in here because he might be heard so he moved slowly along hoping he wouldn't miss the locked room. It took him an achingly slow five minutes to finally reach his destination.

The room was, fortunately, empty as he unbolted the protective grid then used a gadget Tech had given him that could detect hidden cameras or other types of sensors in a room. After using it to scan the area below him and discovering it was safe, he pocketed the device and dropped down to the carpeted floor.

As he looked around, he discovered he'd hit the jackpot. It was definitely Swackhammer's office. The room was spacious and decorated with very expensive pieces of furniture and paintings. A couple of bookshelves were on one wall filled with books on economy, law, and advocacy rules. A huge desk dominated one part of the room and this was where the road runner began his search.

It was unlocked and he searched all of the drawers, and then moved to a filing cabinet finding nothing in either area. Searching the room, he finally discovered a safe hidden behind a large portrait of Swackhammer himself.

The safe was rather rudimentary, only equipped with a seven digit code, instead of using voice-identification, retinal scan, or palm-print ID, which surprised Rev. Shrugging; he used his super-speed to find the key code. After a minute or so, he finally landed on it. Opening the safe carefully, he searched the interior.

The safe had three shelves, one held money, the second one held a file of legal papers, and the third had only a small envelope. Frowning, Rev drew the envelope out and pulled out a single piece of paper.

Puzzled at the contents, he nonetheless decided it was important enough to take a photo of. He quickly laid it on a nearby table, took out a special miniaturized camera Tech had incorporated in their communicators, out of his pocket and took a picture of the paper then put it back in the envelope returning it to the safe.

'I'd better get out of here. This information is probably what Ace was looking for. Can't go back the way I came in, too chancy. Guess it's the most direct route then.' He sighed to himself. He closed the safe then made his way to the window past the desk. He carefully opened the window and fixed it so it would close behind him then stepped out holding the sill for a moment before turning and racing down the side of the building at super-speed.

He arrived at the basketball court just behind Marc. He got Patricia's attention. She distracted Marc as she signalled Tech that Rev had returned. Tech deactivated the cube and the holo-Rev vanished to be quickly replaced by the original road runner.

Though anxious to know what Rev had found, the others knew it would have to wait so they concentrated on their training. By six o'clock they finally finished for the day and Marc released them. He warned them to get some rest because training was going to get harder each day.

Exhausted, they made their way to their quarters. After having a shower and a light meal, they all took a seat around the dining table and listened attentively as Rev gave his report. He covered every detail he could remember of what he'd seen.

"So Swackhammer's office is heavily guarded, heh?" Sylth said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Yeah, seems strange to have that much fire power and security for an office. Besides the guards, there were surveillance cameras, which had gravitational devices which allowed them to hover from one side to the other. I tell you, if it wasn't for my speed and expertise in capturing small details with my vision, I would probably never have found a way to get inside. And let me just say that entering through the air ducts was pure genius on my part." Rev smirked proudly, sounding a little like Duck when he made on of his pompous speeches.

"Hmmm, very interesting… you're right Rev; it's likely he's hiding something very important to him there. So what did you find in his office that might have warranted that much security?" Ace demanded to know.

"After searching the room, desk, and file cabinet and finding nothing of interest, I finally located a safe behind a portrait. The strange thing was the safe wasn't a very good one and I was able to open it without too much difficulty. When I looked in it there wasn't much there. A lot of money on one shelf, some legal documents and an envelope with one small piece of paper in it. This was the only thing of interest. I took a photo of it and put it back like I found it then closed the safe and got out of there by the window. Now let me show you what I found." Rev said pressing the button on the special camera which immediately displayed a holographic image of the paper.

"It says, "Project: Prometheus" and N.G.L. Does anyone know what N.G.L. stands for?" Sylth asked in puzzlement.

"Only one way to find out… Tech, you think you can find out what N.G.L. stands for, by using your computer research program?" Lexi asked the coyote.

"Already ahead of you, Lexi." Tech said his attention on his computer. "Unfortunately, that abbreviation stands for a lot of things, from fast food chains to libraries, all over thirty galaxies. Let me just try and tighten my search parameters a minute and see what I can come up with." He muttered distractedly.

While they waited for Tech to find something, the others continued to study the message. No had an idea what this meant but they knew they had to find out quickly what Swackhammer was up to. After several long minutes, Tech finally discovered something.

"Guys, I think I found it, and unless I'm wrong, which normally doesn't happen, the monogram N.G.L. stands for Nerdluck General Laboratories." Tech said with certainty. He accessed the website and was soon reading it to his team mates. "It's one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies on Nerdluck, and it's also the most important research laboratory in all Nerdluck. They have one of their branches right here, on Swackhammer's Colossal Sports Moon."

"But what does that have to do with Swackhammer? I mean, it doesn't make sense! Why would Swackhammer have a paper with their monogram on it, anyway?" Mimi asked in frustration.

"I don't know… but the technicians that took a sample of our blood could have been working for them, Mimi." Lexi said thoughtfully.

"You're absolutely right about that, Lexi. According to this, they are responsible for drug and steroid control in basketball players in all Nerdluck." Tech said.

"W-W-Well, at l-l-least, now we k-k-know who t-t-they are a-a-and w-w-what t-t-they do." Pinkster said with a shrug.

"But that still doesn't explain what "Project: Prometheus" is, folks." Patricia declared. "It could be anything!"

"She's got a point, guys! Whatever that project really is, it can't be good, or legal, because that Nerdluckian grease-ball would not hide it so well, from everyone, in a place with so much security, if it was no big deal." Duck said shrewdly.

"I hate to say this, but Duck's right, this time. If it's that well guarded, it's probably illegal." Ace agreed grimly. "Maybe… "A thought occurred to him. "Tech, can you access their mainframe and see if you can find anything about that project?" He asked the coyote.

"Sure, chief! Let me just see if I can pass their firewalls, access one of the secondary frames to bypass the security system, which can be very difficult…" Tech said while his fingers flashed over his keyboard. "It's done! I'm in." He growled in triumph. "Okay, let's see what I can find out here…" He murmured in concentration.

Searching the files, Tech tried to find anything that could give them a clue of what that project really was. Not finding anything in the main files, he tried to look for ghost files in the drives, but did not find anything there either. He searched every file in the data frame, but it seemed that they had nothing about that mysterious project in their files.

"Nothing! Absolutely, nothing! They don't have a single file referencing "Project: Prometheus", guys." Tech said in disgust.

"Are you sure about that, Tech? There isn't a single fichero in their data base?" Swift asked his companion.

"Positive, Swift. If there's such a project they certainly didn't keep a file on it." Tech said flatly.

"Well, that's strange. Then why is there a paper with the monogram of that laboratory and the name of that project, written on it?" Duck wondered aloud.

"It's possible they've hidden it under a different name to prevent anyone finding it but those in the know or another possibility is one I myself used when I was a Hitman. To protect sensitive data from being hacked, I would break it down into various parts and then store it on different computers making it too difficult for someone to understand it without all the parts." Sylth suggested slowly.

"There's also one more possibility, they never put in a computer file at all but kept it on paper instead." Ace said.

"Ace, this is the twenty-eighth century. Nobody uses such primitive means to keep information recorded anymore." Lexi objected.

"I would normally agree with you there, Lexi, but if I wanted to hide something very important I might just do that because no one would believe I would." Ace said cannily. "If I'm right, then there's something really big going on that they wouldn't risk putting in any computer least someone, like us, were to find out about it. And folks, that's exactly what we've got to do." Ace said grimly. "So our next step is getting into the nearby laboratory and take a look around."

"That's a mighty big if there, o' fearless leader. You're asking us to go into a laboratory on a hunch!" Duck with a snort.

"Also, Ace ! W-w-why would there be any k-k-kind of information about that p-p-project there? R-R-Remember, it's just a branch l-l-laboratory." Pinkster said cautiously.

"I know, but it's a shot we'll have to take, guys. I feel if there is something to be found, it is more likely to be found here on this moon closer to Swackhammer and whatever plans he's got cooking." Ace said firmly.

"There's only one catch, Ace. When could we go? We have practice everyday until the game and we're usually too exhausted to be going off on a mission of this type. We're certain to be missed and you're going off on only a hunch that we'll find something there. I don't like the idea of a wild goose chase. It's not that I don't like going on that kind of chase, trying to catch a bad guy, but we don't really have the time to do it or a certainty that it's the right move!" Rev objected.

"All very valid points, Rev but it's the only thing we have to go on right now. I have a plan that will allow us to snoop and be at practice. Tomorrow, we'll give the excuse there's an emergency we have to attend to but since its no big deal, only half of the team will go while the rest of the team goes on with the practice as usual. The ones going on the spy mission will be disguised." Ace explained his plan.

"Sounds like a good plan. So who's going and who's staying?" Tech asked.

"Well I hadn't got that far, let me think." Ace said staring at them thoughtfully. "Lexi, because she's good with disguises, Sylth, to help us evade the security systems, Swift as point and recon expert to get us into tight spots, Mimi, who can pass as anyone that will help us get past the guards, and finally, if we get into real trouble and need a distraction, Duck and Slam will do nicely." Ace decided.

"Okay, pero! Just one other thing, what if someone gets suspicious of our alibi?" Swift asked.

"Not to worry, Swift. If anything goes wrong, Tech will come up with something, right Tech?" Ace answered, looking at the coyote.

"No problem, I'll just program a scene from our files on one of our battles, update it by putting only the ones on the mission on it then if a question comes up about where you are I'll just pretend I've tuned into our comm. system to get a live feed with you guys when in reality, it will be just a recording. Perfect alibi!" Tech said with casual certainty.

"See, nothing can go wrong, everything's been covered. So, now I think its time we get a little shuteye. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day." Ace said with a yawn, getting up from his seat. The others nodded, stretched and yawned as well as they followed their leader's footsteps.


	7. Infiltration

Just before you read this, it's just to tell you that Ulyferal, who's helping me with the revision of my stories, noticed that there were a few mistakes in this chapter, which she corrected. Thank you, once again for helping me, and well… On with the story. I hope you like this chapter, which was really difficult to write, because of the speed of the action itself.

Chapter 7: Infiltration

After a few good hours of sleep, the Loonatics rose and got ready to begin, what Duck had dubbed, 'Operation: Infiltration.

To prevent any suspicions being raised, they started their day like they had the previous ones. Breakfast was eaten, they got dressed, then went down to the court for training. Their plan for getting away was to pretend they'd been called to respond to an emergency

Reporting for training as usual, they'd barely begun when Ace's communicator sounded off as prearranged by Tech. Ace listened to the fake message letting Mark hear a little of it deliberately. When the call ended, Ace put on a serious face.

"Problems?" Mark asked politely and with some concern.

"Yeah, there's an asteroid about to collide with a planet in the Gurvery System. They are in a panic because they have no way to stop it." Ace explained. "I think this emergency needs only half our number so the rest will be here to practise."

Ace pretended to pick the team to handle the fake emergency. In reality, they had already been chosen last night. Out loud for Mark's benefit, he told Lexi she was in charge of the mission, which would consist of: Duck, Slyth, Slam, Swift, and Mimi.

"Remember guys, be careful and watch your backs. As soon as you have stopped the asteroid get back here. If you need backup, give us a call." Ace ordered. "Off with you and good luck!"

"Right! Don't worry, Ace! We've got this covered. Let's jet guys!" Lexi said, turning and running back off the court followed by her team.

They returned to their rooms and changed into their uniforms then made for the hangar where their spaceship was parked. As soon as Lexi notified traffic control center of their plans for takeoff and their destination, she taxied the ship out of its hangar while awaiting clearance. She got it some minutes later and they were off on their fake mission.

They pretended to head in the direction they had given traffic control until they passed out of the systems monitoring area. As soon as they had, she ordered Mimi to turn on their stealth mode which effectively made them invisible to everyone. Lexi then reversed their course and took them back to the moon they'd just left.

She ordered Sylth to set the coordinates for the laboratories and soon they were heading to another part of the moon.

While they were travelling to their destination, Lexi called for everyone's attention. After their meeting last night, she had gone over the plan and felt some changes were required that might increase their chances of success.

"Okay guys, I've made some small changes to our original plan so listen up as I go over the whole thing again. I'll disguise myself as a scientist and pretend I have an appointment with one of the managers, effectively distracting the receptionist." Lexi began.

"While the receptionist preoccupied, Duck, you will use this hacking disk Tech gave me. It will give us the ability to hack into the main computer and using our ships computer we'll be able to insert a message telling the building's occupants that they have a cockroach infestation and that a team of exterminators has been called from Acme Exterminators, Inc. That's when Sylth and Swift, wearing exterminator clothes, will enter the building, show these fake Ids Tech made up." Lexi explained, handing over the Ids to the pair.

"Mimi, you will be hiding in one of the canisters Sylth and Swift will be carrying. Now, once you two are in, start looking for the control room for the place. Once you have, Mimi will slip from the canister and use her abilities to enter the room and unlock the door before the guards know she's there. Swift will then shoot the guards with tranquillizers that will keep them out for about thirty minutes." Lexi went on.

"That's all the time you have to get into the computers and erase your entry into the room then search for the location of the archives. Mimi, you will remain in the computer room and will guide Sylth and Swift to them as well as turn off all the security cameras along their path. Once you've found the archives, search for the data we're looking for. If you find it, photograph it and get out quickly. Once out in the halls again, pretend you're spraying cockroach poison. Mimi, make sure the cameras are back on and be sure to blank your presence then use the air conduits to leave the control room.

You two finish up your pretend job and come back toward the entrance again. Since the security guards are going to search you, pass close to me and hand off the camera then leave quickly for the ship. I'll pretend I've had enough of arguing with the receptionist, leave in a huff and join you back at the ship. No one will be the wiser if we manage this perfectly. Any questions?" She asked.

"Yeah! What about me and Slam? Have you forgotten about us, hmm?" Duck asked in annoyance.

"You're our back up, of course, in case something goes wrong. We certainly don't want to get caught so you two need to stay close and listen over our open radios for trouble. I'll have a signaller disguised as a button on my coat that will tell you guys we're in trouble." Lexi said seriously.

"Back up! You want me, Danger Duck to be back up?" Duck blurted in anger, crossing his arms over his chest. "No way sister, I'm no ones back up. I'm the star of this team and I refuse to be treated as anything else. And furthermore..." He ranted before he was rudely shut up by someone grabbing his beak and holding it closed.

"Why don't you be quiet? You're embarrassing yourself, Duck." Sylth growled, shaking duck's beak for a moment before releasing it.

"Sylth's right, Duck, take orders for once without making a spectacle of yourself. Slam isn't complaining about being backup." Mimi said in disgust.

"Thank you." Lexi said to the two that had chastized Duck. "You will stick with the plan, Duck, understand? No more complaints. We've arrived! Check that your comms are on! Sylth and Swift come to my room so I can get your disguises done. Everyone else wait here." Lexi ordered then left the bridge.

While Duck fumed for a bit, Lexi went to her quarters and put on a disguise as a scientist, changing her hair color and appearance so much she didn't look like herself. Once done, she helped Sylth and Swift get transformed into exterminators.

Once set to go, they returned to the where Mimi used her stretching abilities to allow her to climb into a medium sized silver canister Sylth picked up and slung over his shoulder while Swift picked up a smaller one with real poison in it. Lexi gave Swift a tiny camera which he put into a pocket inside his coveralls. Each one checked their communicators which looked like watches then they were ready to leave.

As they came up on the laboratory complex they noted it was a rather remarkable building, reminding them of the architectural detail of the late 27th century. Being completely white, it stood out from the rest of the buildings with their more industrial look and its entrance was away from the parking area of the other buildings. This would make getting away a bit more easier.

They parked their still invisible ship on the dark side of the building away from the others in the area. Lexi walked around to the front entrance first while Swift and Sylth waited for approximately ten minutes to make their appearance.

Dressed in a white coat, wearing a hat, a pair of sunglasses and carrying a briefcase, Lexi looked like she belonged here. She pushed open the entrance door and into a rather grand looking greeting area. There were various plants here and there, chairs and tables with magazines as well as a small corner with a drink setup.

The receptionist sat at a curved counter of polished oak. To the left and right of him were double doors where people were entering and exiting rather regularly. Lexi went directly to the reception desk and greeted the man

"Hello, there honey. My name is Dr. Rose Orchid and I'm here to see the person in charge of these facilities." She said in a fake accent and flashing a professional smile.

"You want to talk with Dr. Trewilk? Do you have an appointment with him, miss…" He asked politely.

"Doctor… Dr. Rose Orchid, honey, but you can call me Rosy, if you want to... and, yes, I do have an appointment with him in about ten minutes." Lexi said haughtily.

"Of course, Dr. Orchid. Let me just check his agenda. It won't take a moment." The receptionist said as he keyed up his computer and checked something on his screen. "I'm sorry doctor, but I don't show any such appointment. The only meeting I show for Dr. Trewilk is for after lunch." He said apologetically.

Lexi pretended to huff in irritation. "Well, check it again, please. He and I scheduled this appointment almost three months ago and I came all the way from the Sapphire Galaxy to be here. So be a sweetheart and do that for me, alright?" She asked, laying on the sugar but showing she was annoyed as well

Trying to please her and not make her angry, the receptionist quickly went back to his computer. "Uhm, yes ma'am, I'll check it again."

While the receptionist tried to find the elusive appointment, the entrance door opened again revealing two scruffy individuals wearing tan coveralls that said Acme Exterminators on the back and wearing baseball caps in red with the same logo on it. They each carried a silver canister and the smaller of the pair also carried some kind of GPS unit. They walked up to the counter.

"Excuse us sir, but we're from Acme Exterminators." Sylth said showing his and Swift's Ids. "We're here to spray for cockroaches." He maintained a calm and fake bored expression.

"Uh, I don't recall being told about cockroaches." The receptionist said in surprise.

"Well you better check it out, buddy. I have other jobs to do today." Sylth said blandly.

"Security wasn't notified of this either." A burly security guard said gruffly, looking at them suspiciously. He seen them enter on his monitor and felt a tingle of alarm so decided to check them out. He had walked up while everyone was focussed elsewhere and now stood close to the pair, eyeing them.

"I could care less. We dropped an important job to be here so check your system for a call or we're out of here." Sylth said still maintaining a calm exterior and not letting the guard worry him.

"Better check it out Gerry." The security guard told the receptionist.

Gerry sighed in annoyance at all the commotion at his desk this morning.

"Uh, please excuse me Dr. Orchid, I need to check this." He said to Lexi.

"Sure, honey. I can wait a few minutes more." Lexi said casually. Mentally she worried. 'Hope Duck has already hacked into this computer with the order or we're screwed.'

Back at the ship, Duck was attempting to do that very thing using Tech's hacking disk. Unfortunately, things weren't going well because the lab's computer was resisting his attempts to break into it. Sweating, he continued to fight with it and cursing when it wouldn't obey him. "Despicable computer! I already gave you that order! What do you want me to do now?! I knew it, I should have been the one passing myself as a scientist, and Lexi should be here, trying to figure out what this thing wants!"

"Blalgrgahaglahgll… Problems?" Slam asked in concern.

"You can say that again, Slam! I can't understand this computer… Tech should have given us an instruction manual because he's sometimes too smart for his own good." Duck growled as he tried again.

"Ah! Finally, I'm in… remind me to tell Tech, instructions manuals are a must with his inventions. Now let's see what we can do around here." Duck muttered as he typed the required order into the computer. "Done! Nothing, not even a computer can outsmart, Danger Duck!" He crowed.

Duck had cut it close but Lexi mentally sighed in relief when the receptionist confirmed the infestation.

"Ah, here it is. Was added this morning. Looks like a nasty infestation alright. They can pass." The receptionist said as he handed their Ids back to them and gave them a map of the facility. "Now you can't have access to the secured areas but since the infestation seems to be in the corridors and offices, those are the ones you should do."

As pair nodded their understanding, the security guard, seeing that things were alright, returned to his office.

Moving easily, Sylth and Swift studied the map and pretended to discuss where to start spraying first as they made for one of the double doors.

'Right, now it's up to them. Hope they find it quickly. Now all I can do is try to draw out this distraction a little longer.' Lexi thought as she returned her attention to the receptionist and began a game of annoyance.

"Thank you for your patience, Dr. Orchid. Let me check with Dr. Trewilk's secretary and see if the appointment just failed to get into the system." Gerry said as he picked up his phone and dialled a number. He looked at her a moment, "Are you sure the appointment was for today and not tomorrow?" He asked as he waited for the secretary to pick up.

"Absolutely!" Lexi said firmly.

"Well, hopefully we'll get this straightened out quickly." Gerry said then began talking to the secretary on the phone.

While Lexi kept the receptionist busy, Sylth and Swift used the handy map Gerry had given them and quickly found the main security control room. Looking around them and pretending to be looking for cockroaches near the floor they searched for a small out of the way spot nearby to release Mimi. After a tense search, they found a small corner not covered by the security cam.

Sylth kept his back to the corner to hide Swift who released Mimi from her tight confinement.

"Man, this thing sure is tight." Mimi complained softly

"I'll bet. The door just down there is the control room. Get in and don't get caught." Sylth warned.

"I know what to do, Sylth... Men!" She snorted. She quickly turned herself completely flat and slide along the baseboard like a stain and soon slipped under the appropriate door. The guards backs were to her as they sat at their monitors totally focussed on their screens.

Relieved no one was looking her way, Mimi concentrated and changed enough of herself to make an arm with hand to reach up and slowly open the door. Swift was the first at the door and fired the moment he acquired a target, hitting each in quick succession. None had time to react before they slumped at their stations. Slyth slipped in behind Swift and closed the door quietly and locked it so they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Now, tell me if I wasn't spectacular?" The skunk smirked happily after she'd turned back to normal.

"If that makes you feel better, then, yes, you were quite spectacular." Sylth said flatly.

"You better be careful, Mimi, porque you're sounding just like Duck… And I'm sure you don't want to sound just like heem." Swift snorted.

"Aw, I'm just teasing you two… Can't you take a joke?" Mimi sighed in annoyance. "Okay, let's get to the next step of the plan. Listen for my instructions by radio, guys." She said getting serious as she pulled a guard from his seat and called up the information she needed to alter the cameras memory.

"Actually we don't need to Mimi. The receptionist gave us a map. This will cut out time significantly. Just be ready to unlock the door when we get there." Sylth said.

"Well that's certainly handy. Makes my job easier... okay let me see it for a moment." She demanded and Sylth handed it over. "Okay... take this route guys..." She pointed the route out to them. "Now let me shut off those cameras... right... done... get going guys and good luck."

"You too!" Swift said as he and Sylth picked up their gear. Swift checked with his x-ray vision to see if the coast was clear then they slipped out and shut the door.

Still pretending they were spraying for bugs the pair moved as fast as they dared to an elevator and on up to the third floor. Occasionally they ran into workers and scientists as they went about their business but they were ignored as they appeared to be there legitimately.

Finally, they reached the room of the archive. Again Swift checked to make sure there was no one in there but here their luck ran out. There were at least two people within.

They sprayed around the hallway while watching the door nervously. Some five minutes later, to their relief, the pair of workers left the room with folders in their hands and chattering in some high tech language.

They waited a few more moments then spoke to Mimi.

"Okay, Mimi, the coast is clear. Trip the lock!" Swift said softly into his radio.

"Gotcha! One unlocked door, coming up!" Mimi murmured back and the door made a soft click.

Quickly the pair entered the room of records and made sure the door closed behind them.

"I still don't comprendo why Ace didn't choose Pinkster to come along. He would have no trouble entering this room and we would not need to act like exterminators." Swift said the one thing that had bothered him since they started this mission.

"Because, according to our alibi, we're supposed to be in the Gurvery System, beating the crud out of an asteroid that is going to hit a planet, and not snooping around in a laboratory. It would look suspicious to send a light weight like Pinkster to a mission that required brut strength, speed and force powers to accomplish it." Sylth explained calmly as he looked around. "Sufferin' succotash! Just look at this place!" He exclaimed.

The Archive was larger than they could have imagined. The walls were painted in a very pale, almost ghostly green-tone and the floor was paved with mirror shined black mosaics which reflected everything in the room. There were hundreds of index cabinets, organized in rows, all over the place.

"And this is why Ace sent you instead of Pinkster… because you're faster and can check out all these cabinet in a matter of minutes. Can you tell me if any of these things has folders with printed paper files in them?" Sylth asked frowning.

"Uno momento!" Swift said as he used his x-ray vision once again and searched the room quickly. He soon noted that most of the cabinets had at least a few folders, while others were filled with them. "Oh yes, they all are, and worst yet, the cabinets are all locked with some kind of electronic safety lock." He reported.

Sylth didn't look upset about that as he took something out of a pocket in his coveralls. It looked like a small key or a computer chip of some kind. He turned to Swift and handed it to him.

"Remember, before I became a Loonatic, I was a hit man. And I was very good at what I did because I was always prepared for anything. This small key allows the user to break the security code of any lock... instantly." He explained. "Now get to it. We haven't much time left."

Without another word, Swift took the key and raced around the room unlocking all the cabinets. They checked the time. Fifteen minutes left! They had to hurry. They spilt up the room.

"You take that half of the room and I'll take this half. Sing out if you find anything." Sylth said as he made for the nearest cabinet. Swift moved quickly to the other side and moved through the cabinets in rapid fashion. Sylth wished he could move that fast.

Despite Swift's speed, it was Sylth who actually found something.

"I think I found something, come over here." He called out to Swift who was at his side in seconds.

Sylth had pulled out a folder and inside the top sheet said 'Project Prometheus'. Once again, one of Ace's hunches had paid off. Whatever this project was, it was so secret the laboratories hid any information on it in such a way no one would find it or remember seeing it.

Staring at the papers they couldn't make out what it was about because it had been written in some kind of code.

"These papers mean nothing to me, what about you?" Swift asked, frowning.

"Not a chance. Better take our photos and... wait someone's coming... hide!" Sylth hissed softly, putting the file back then turning invisible and stepping into a corner so he wouldn't be run into while Swift disappeared somewhere into the back of this huge place.

Two persons entered in the room, talking to each other. They went to one of the cabinets and opened it, surprised to find it unlocked.

"Hey, did you forget to lock this cabinet the last time we were here?" One of the men asked.

"I don't think so… Why do you ask?"

"Because this one is opened."

"No, I don't remember leaving that cabinet open."

"Well, let's not worry about it. This place is like a vault. Just don't say anything about it and there won't be a problem. Come on, let's put these files away and get out of here. This place always gives me the creeps because of the decor."

After putting the files in the cabinet and locking it, they turn to leave. Suddenly, one of them halts and looks around, listening.

"Did you hear that?" He asked nervously.

"Hear what?"

The pair stood listening for a long moment but only silence greeted them.

"Ah... you've been eating too many Twinkies and its starting to rot your brain. There's no one but us here. Now, come on, we've got other things to do. Don't forget to pull the door tight to engage the lock." The other snorted and went out the door followed by his nervous friend.

Sighing in relief, Sylth became visible again and called to Swift.

"Safe to come out now and bless you!"

"Gracias, amigo! Sorry about that. The dust in this room made me sneeze." Swift said, embarrassed.

"Don't' worry about it. Now let's get that stuff photographed and get out of here ourselves." Sylth said.

"Sure, but why didn't Mimi tell us about those two? We could have been caught." Swift wondered.

"Hmm, you're right. Let's ask her." Sylth said with a frown. "Mimi, we had unexpected visitors. Why didn't you see them?" He spoke into the radio.

Her voice came back to them a bit distracted. "Sorry guys, I was distracted for a moment and..." She was interrupted by a noise near her "...oh no the guards are coming around. Time's up guys. I've got to leave. Hope you're ready to leave too, but you can't use the door cause of all the traffic in the area. Use the ventilation system like me and hurry." Mimi said, then changed her form and slithered up to the vent herself and vanished before one of the guards groggily raised his head.

"That's not good! Better do as she says Swift. Let's hurry." Sylth said urgently.

Swift nodded and pulled out the camera while his partner reached into the cabinet and grabbed the folder again. They went to a nearby table and Swift took pictures of each page Slyth flipped. They were done quickly. Sylth put the file away and locked the cabinet.

"Lock them all, Swift." Sylth said as he went to the ventilation system and studied how he would get up there and out. It was a struggled but he finally managed. Swift moved fast enough to literally fly toward the ceiling. He paused long enough to replace the grate then followed his partner through the vent system.

Meanwhile, Lexi at the front desk was running out of things to get the receptionist to continue looking and knew it was time to leave when she heard Mimi's warning to the guys. She pretended to suffer a severe coughing fit and excused herself to go outside for air. The receptionist was just glad to see her leave though he was a bit concerned about her. But as he saw her outside, she seemed to recover alright. Relieved, he went back to his work.

Moving out of the sight of the lobby, Lexi contacted the others.

"Sylth, have you got the information?"

Sylth paused a moment to speak with her. "That's affirmative and we've gotten pics of it. On our way out now through the ventilation system. You'd better have Duck and Slam create that diversion now. Where are you?"

"I'm outside, fortunately. Keep coming. I'll call the cavalry." Lexi told them then switched the frequency.

In the security control room, the guards were starting to wake up. The first one that had was already studying the screens and noted one was dark. Mimi had failed to turn the cameras on. Hissing in anger, the guard set off the intruder alarm. It's loud wailing filled the building.

Waiting tensely outside, Lexi had already pushed the button on her coat to notify Duck and Slam to cause a diversion. She decided it would be best if she got back to the ship before anyone saw her.

The signal reached Duck and Slam who had been cooling their heels outside the ship.

"There's our cue, buddy!" Duck exclaimed. "Time to show them that we're experts at what we do!"

"Blagahglrghlarghl… Right!" Slam shouted.

"I'll blow that tank of liquid oxygen while you make things shake a little and remember, don't let them see you!" Duck warned him.

With that, both of them departed their separate ways. First, Duck teleported himself to where the tank of liquid oxygen was and used his powers to create a blazing morph ball, which he fired into the tank making it explode like a fireball. The explosion was powerful enough to knock a few things down, including the buildings energy grid.

At the same time, Slam started spinning, and with his fists, he slammed them against the ground, making things shake like it was a small earthquake, powerful enough to create panic, but not powerful enough to break things. People panicked and began to pour out of the building.

Meanwhile, Lexi waited tensely for her team mates to return. Slam and Duck were the first to arrive then Mimi who had gone flat again and stayed near the ceiling and escaped that way. Sylth had turned invisible when he dropped from the ventilation system into a small storage room.

Joining the mass exodus was a bit difficult since people kept running into his invisible body but he finally managed to get free of the crowd and made his way to the ship. Swift had been able to move so fast no one was able to see him and was already at the ship when Sylth got there.

Safe once more, they caught their breathes and waited to insure their take off would not be noted before taking off for space. They had to seem to be coming from further out before returning to Ace and the others.

"Now that was some aventura!" Swift exclaimed to the others.

"Yeah, but we almost got caught! Good thing Slam and I were covering your tails!" Duck said pompously, conveniently forgetting he didn't want to be back up.

"What matters now is we have the data we needed and let's just hope that Tech, Rev or Pinkster might find out what Swackhammer and those Crushers are really up to." Lexi sighed as she piloted the ship.

They took up a station keeping position for a few hours, to give the idea they were really on a mission. By the time they returned, they didn't have to pretend to look tired as they went back to their room to change and hide the camera. They went back down to the court and joined their team mates for lunch.

Ace eyed them and was glad to see no one was hurt and all was safe. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing hard. Finally, the long day came to an end and they dragged themselves to their room for much needed showers and dinner.

Checking the room for bugs again, they settled down and gave reports of what went on that day. Then the team on the mission presented the holographic images and tried to make sense of the information they had risked so much to get.

Tech sighed and rubbed his eyes before he gave them the bad news. "Well, one thing is for certain, guys. This has been encrypted in such a way that even I am having trouble making any sense of it. Whoever did this was a genius. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. I'm sure its quite simple, once we decode it, but for now, all these numbers, calculations, numerical matrixes and names that are written here, don't make any sense at all."

"Gee... and here I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, brainiac!" Duck snorted derisively. "I risked my feathers to get that information for you, and you don't even know what it is?!"

"Get over yourself, Duck! You weren't in any danger and you know it. Only Sylth, Lexi, Swift and I were in any real danger. You were the diversion, remember?" Mimi snapped at him in annoyance.

"Blargaghlaghrl… Yeah, remember?!" Slam chided him.

"Oh yeah? If it weren't for our distraction, you guys would have been caught, and brainiac over there would not have the information he doesn't know how to break the code on." Duck snapped back.

"If you think that breaking and deciphering encrypted codes, using nothing but mathematic probabilities and statistics, along with comparison tablets and matrixes is easy, well, be my guest, Duck." Tech challenged the annoying bird.

"And we're just talking about the regular calculations, because if that isn't enough to decipher the message, we'll have to use quantum calculations, and use references from other possible codes, which will give us about a trillion possible deciphering combinations, added to the ones that we already had and that would give us about…" Rev rattled on.

"Okay, okay, okay! I get it… It won't be that simple. Sheesh, next time I'll just shut my beak!" Duck grumbled.

"Not that's the best thing you've said in a long time." Sylth muttered.

"Anyway, whatever it takes, we've got to figure this thing out. I just know its an important piece of the puzzle to explain whatever Swackhammer is up to." Ace sighed.

"Save it for tomorrow, guys. We're all beat so let's get some sleep. We need our strength to get through another day on the court. Good night all!" Lexi said, yawning to prove her point and getting up to go to her room.

"Good idea. I'm wiped... I really need to get some sleep." Patricia yawned as well.

"M-M-Me too… The t-t-training was e-e-exhaus… was e-e-exhaus… was e-e-exhaus… it really wore me d-d-down." Pinkster stuttered, as he dragged himself to his bedroom.

As the Loonatics all got ready to go to bed, somewhere else, two figures, both wrapped in shadows, held a secret conversation.

"Is everything going as expected?" One asked of the other.

"We're having a few problems with it, but you needn't worry. Everything will be ready, when the time comes."


	8. First Attempt and Encrypted Data

Chapter 8: First Attempt and Encrypted Data

Morning arrived just like all the others as the Loonatics began what was becoming a standard routine. After breakfast, they equipped themselves and went down to the training court where Marc was waiting for them on a bench, eating a candy bar.

"Well, good morning, folks!" He greeted them. "I see you are in a excellent shape this morning."

"More or less, o' fearless coach! My back is killing me from yesterday's training session." Duck complained, groaning as he straightened his back.

"If your back and the rest of your body were as flexible as your beak when you talk, then you wouldn't have anything to complain about, Duck. "Patricia quipped.

"Very funny… It's so funny I forgot to laugh!" Duck snorted derisively.

"Okay, enough of that!" Mark chided, as he struggled to stop laughing himself.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Ace asked. "The usual training or something a little more challenging for a change, Marc?"

"Today, I think I'll give you guys a little break from the usual training. We're going to see the Monstrosity Crushers training in the court, using the holographic mode, so you can have a glimpse of what you're going to face." Marc said more seriously. "I don't want you to get intimidated when you see these guys moving on the court, because you will be able to compete at their own level, when the time comes. I just want you to watch them playing, so you can get a feel for their style and, maybe, if you can spot one or two flaws that will help you find a strategy to defeat them at their own game. So, come on, let's check them out."

Following their trainer and coach, Ace and the others entered the elevator and, when the doors closed, Mark pressed the button to take them to the ground floor, where the main court was. As they got out of the elevator, they saw the Crushers were practicing in the holographic mode.

The holographic scenery was an old salvage yard, where you could see piles and piles of crushed cars and other vehicles, scattered around. They all got seated on a bench near the wall. Everyone watched closely as each member of the Crushers used their natural abilities to pass through the obstacles.

Jumping from one side to the other, and sometimes even ramming their bodies against the obstacles, it seemed nothing would be able to stop them. Bourré was the one who was making more use of his enormous strength, using his fists to punch the crushed cars to the side, or create a passage which allow him to get to the basket. Blackjack was the one coordinating the team's moves, telling them what to do.

"21, Up and Down, now!" He barked.

Twenty-one grabbed the ball, and with a huge jump, she jumped over a bunch of wrecked cars, and as soon her feet touched the ground, she slid beneath an old trailer. With an elegant and almost perfect move, she threw the ball, right into the basket, scoring two points, without breaking a sweat.

Baccarat grabbed the ball and jumped as if he had springs on his shoes, threw it to Poker, who threw it back at him again. The Loonatics soon found out that they were using the "Give and Go" play.

Finally, when they were approaching the three point area, Baccarat once again threw the ball to Poker, who grabbed it, dribbled it for a second, grabbing it once again to execute a "Slam Dunk" that nearly ripped the basket from where it was hung.

Seeing that, Patricia gulped in fear, because she knew those guys were not fooling around. The rest of the team was feeling the same by the expressions on their faces.

Ace was worried but he didn't show it on his face. As their leader he couldn't afford to show fear in the face of the Crushers abilities and ruthlessness. He had to show only confidence and a surety that they would prevail no matter what he truly felt inside.

Before he could get his team's attention to help bolster their flagging confidence the holographic field shut down and the court returned to normal. Baccarat was the first to notice they had company.

"Looks like the puny little Loonatics have decided to join us, guys." He said loudly in that shrieky voice of his.

At his comment, his team mates turned to see their audience. Bourré eyed them with a nearly psychotic look as the Crushers approached the Loonatics who stood up before they got too close. Blackjack spoke up, his voice menacing and creepy.

"So, what did you think about our skills, punks?"

"Pretty impressive, I have to admit." Ace said honestly.

"Yeah, for a bunch of guys who have brains the size of peanuts, it was quite impressive…" Duck muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately, his remark was heard.

"What did you just said?!" Poker snapped.

"I said that you guys are all muscle and no brain!" Duck snarked off, in a louder voice.

"You really got an attitude, bird… I like that in a guy, because it will make it even funnier to squash you like an insect." Poker retorted. "And believe me, I will do that as soon as we get on the court.

"Why wait! Let's just settle it right now! Huh?" Duck blustered in challenge before Lexi grabbed him by the arm… hard.

"Stop this Duck!" She hissed at him urgently, giving him a hard shake. "That mouth of yours will get us in more trouble than we're ready for."

"Don't tell me what to do, Lexi!" Duck said, yanking his arm away from Lexi and blindly ignoring the danger as usual. "Besides, she's nothing but a muscled cheerleader who knows a few tricks."

Poker jumped in before Lexi or Ace could say anything. "Very well, I accept your challenge… one on one, and to make things interesting, I won't even use my powers to copy your unique abilities. However, you may use your abilities if you want to. That way you and your friends will see that even without using our absorption powers, my team is still superior!" She said flatly, a malicious tone in her voice.

"I'm so going to enjoy this… Pinkster, buddy, watch how I mop the floor with her face." Duck bragged to his friend but Pinkster was upset and was turning to Ace.

"P-P-Please, Ace, t-t-tell D-D-Duck to stop t-t-this b-b-before he g-g-gets… b-b-before he g-g-gets… b-b-before he g-g-gets… before he does something he will r-r-regret!" He pleaded.

"Sorry, Pinkster, but Duck really deserves being taught a lesson for not knowing when to keep his beak shut. Since he wont listen to good advice, this will either teach him or make him worse." Ace said firmly as he watched Duck and Poker go to the centre of the court. "Besides, it will be interesting how he'll react in a holographic field."

"I-If you s-s-say so, Ace." Pinkster said, worriedly. He knew his friend was very good at making a fool of himself but at this he might get seriously hurt. Still, if Ace felt Duck was in danger, he would be the first to order him to stop.

When the two opponents gathered in the centre of the court, the purple, female Nerdluckian, looked down at Duck.

"What venue would you like to play in?" Poker asked. "Jungle, volcano, junk yard, a cave... which will it be?"

"You pick it, sister… doesn't matter to me since you'll be losing." Duck snorted derisively.

Without changing her expression, Poker nodded. "Let's go for a simple one, just for you. Activate holographic simulation, level 1!" She ordered.

The computer obeyed Poker's order and the holographic mode was activated creating a white, sandy beach. There were a few coconut trees spread around the court and a few cliffs near the water. It looked so realistic that even the mere sound made by the waves sounded as if they were really near the ocean.

A ball appeared on the floor in the centre of the ring then suddenly flew upward, missing the ceiling of the building by centimetres before beginning its descent.

Duck was already teleporting to grab the ball but Poker, moving incredibly fast, leapt straight up and snatched the ball just before Duck could reappear. He was shocked when he popped into view and Poker was already heading back to the floor, ball firmly grasped in her hands.

Once she was on the ground, she began to dribble toward the basket. Just as she was about to slam dunk it, Duck appeared right in front of her.

"Oh, no you don't! I'm not letting you make a fool out of me, sister!" Duck growled as he used one of his morph balls, altered it to a super glue like substance, and fired it at her feet… hoping to glue her to the floor but he missed.

"I don't think so, bird-brain!" Poker jeered at him as she threw the ball.

The ball passed right under Duck's legs, ricocheting on a rock, described a curious angle, which made it hit on a coconut tree, throwing it back, where Poker grabbed it, and performed a perfect Slam Dunk, right in Duck's face.

He could not believe what he had just seen and the worst part of all that was the fact he was so amazed by what he had seen, he did not react. He just stood there, as she scored two points.

Still, refusing to throw in the towel, he shook himself, and once again tried to grab the ball, so he could show her that he also knew how to play the game. This went on for almost five minutes, until Poker had scored 50 points, while Duck had only scored 2 points.

The Crushers were enjoying the show, so it was up to Ace to put a stop to the game. He gave Marc a look, which clearly said to end it, that Duck had certainly learned his lesson.

Nodding his head, Marc got to his feet and called out, "Alright! That's quite enough! Tell her to stop, Blackjack."

"Fine… Would have loved to watch more, this was just getting fun." The orange Crusher said, snorting. "That's quite enough, Poker! The bird's already suffered enough." He shouted to her.

"In a sec!" She shouted back then made one final shot.

Duck, hearing that, knew he only had a few seconds to at least score again. He tried to snag the ball from her, but as soon as he tried to, he ended up getting launched, along with the ball, going right in head first through the basket.

His head hit the floor right behind the ball but didn't break anything. He did come away with a humdinger of a headache. If it hadn't been such a sobering sight of the female beating their team mate they might have laughed. Instead, they were all worried.

With that last basket, the holograph collapsed and the court returned to normal. As Duck struggled to his feet, Pinkster having ran to his side to help, Poker moved close and said in a wicked voice.

"Looks like I beat the crud out of you, Duck, and I didn't even break a sweat. And for the record, the 2 points you scored, I let you score them so your ego wouldn't sink even more than it already had."

"You're despicable, you know that?!" Duck snarled.

"I'd rather be despicable than be a loser like you… loser!" Poker said, smirking, turning her back on them and headed for her team.

That parting shot made Duck see red. "I'll show you who the loser is!!!" He shouted, preparing to send a morph ball her way when he was stopped by a psychic bubble cast by Patricia. "Hey! Let me out!" He growled furiously inside the bubble

"No can do, Duck. You better keep your beak shut before the Crushers decide to have you for dinner." She told him, telepathically, before releasing him.

The Monstrosity Crushers left the court laughing out loud and jeering about Duck. That, of course, made him even madder but he took no action. He walked stiffly toward his team mates with Pinkster at his side.

The team was discussing what they'd seen and what they would have to do to be able to win this thing.

"Well, that was productive… Not only did we find out Duck is a total loser when it comes to basketball, but we also discovered we may not beat these guys in the holographic mode." Mimi said gloomily.

"We already knew Duck wasn't the brightest, but I never expected these guys were this good." Sylth said heavily. "They really know how to use the holographic mode to the best advantage."

"I agree with you on both those points, putty tat." Tweetums said grimly, as he flew over to the bulky cat's shoulders, landing on his left shoulder.

"Well, I resent the first one, but agree on the second one." Duck said reluctantly, joining in on the discussion.

"Don't take this personally, Duck, but she kicked your feathers, when she threw that ball with you latched onto it into the basket." Mimi observed, shaking her head.

"Si, and though it was rather humiliating for you, it was mucho funny for us to watch what happens when you let your ego take over your brains." Swift mocked him.

"Yeah, Duck may have asked for it but the humiliation was actually very useful. It gave us a better idea of what we're up against. Now we know exactly what we have to train for to be on even footing with these guys. So it wasn't a wasted effort." Ace said, giving Duck some credit that soothed his ego a little.

"Well that was certainly a back handed compliment. Thanks for that crumb of support, o' fearless leader!" Duck sighed, annoyed, his pride still hurt some.

"Don't mention it." Ace answered flippantly, an amused smile on his face.

"Just like your team leader pointed out, you need to get started training in the holographic mode, because that's where you will have to use your unique abilities to gain terrain and make them eat your dust, if you catch my meaning." Marc said seriously.

"Well then, what are we waiting for… let's get to it guys!" Ace rallied them, heading out onto the court.

"Blarghgalrhlagagahlg… But I'm hungry!" Slam objected.

"But we just had breakfast less than an hour ago, Slam!" Lexi exclaimed.

"You already know that Slam is always hungry." Ace said but sighed. "However, since we'll most likely be working through lunch on this, I guess getting a meal now would be a good idea, that is, if the coach agrees." He said looking at Marc.

Marc sighed, spread his hands and nodded. "Sure, why not!"

After a substantial snack, the Loonatics began training in the holographic mode. At first, they felt a little strange, passing from the ordinary court, where they'd been playing according to the basic rules, to the holographic mode, where they played using the different elements of the scenery to help them score more easily.

By the time they quit training for the day, they were more beat than before. They all crawled back to their suite, where after a shower and a quick meal, they went to bed, except Tech, who decided to stay up working on the encrypted data, which Lexi and the others had retrieved from the laboratories, the day before. During the entire day, Tech had been thinking of ways to find out what was written in those files and was now time to put them into action.

"Okay, according to the Stanzanian studies, the Omega numerology is the base of all encrypted numerology and alphabet, which was established by numerous studies, regarding 21st and 22nd century cryptology. So, if I use the same principle…" Tech muttered to himself.

Tech continued to work on through the night. Although he was tired and sleepy, he had to give it a try. He just needed time and patience to get it done. He used all the programs he knew or could find to break the data then tried to find out what every single symbol meant. Frustrated after a few tries, he decided to take a break. Going to the mini-bar, he opened the door and grabbed a can of soda.

"Maybe what I need is some sugar so my brain can process things faster." The coyote told himself, as he opened the can. "Still, I can't figure out why so many symbols, most of them ancient ones, were used in the encrypting process. Whoever did this, really didn't want people to know what is written in those files."

Finally, after hours of hard work, Tech finally figured out a way to decipher the data and see the message that was written in it. Applying the same principle to the encrypted data, he thought that it would reveal some kind of clear message. Unfortunately for him, the data made no sense at all. It looked like a huge list of names. Some of them were written in English, while others were written in other languages from more than forty or fifty different planets.

Morning soon arrived and the Loonatics groggily got up, only to find Tech still in front of the desk working on the decoded data. His eyes showed he had been up all night, probably taking no more than a few minutes to sleep. Ace approached Tech, trying not to scare him.

"Hey, Tech… Are you alright?" Ace asked him softly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, chief." Tech said thickly, a yawn interrupting him. "I was just giving the finishing touches on the latest version of the deciphered data." He yawned once again.

"What did you find, Tech?" Mimi asked.

"Until now, nothing unusual… I mean… the data you brought back looks like a huge list of names, but these names don't seem to have any sort of connection among them." Tech answered displaying the list on the huge screen monitor.

"I've never seen or heard about any of those names." Sylth mused staring at the names.

"Precisely… it's like the persons on the list never really existed." Tech said. "Still, I think that whatever this list is, it has definitely a connection with Project Prometheus, whatever that project is, of course."

"I'm starting to think we will never find out what Swackhammer is really up to." Patricia sighed unhappily.

"Don't worry, sis, we will end up finding what that slime ball is up to, even if we have to dig out his dirtiest secrets to do it." Mimi said firmly, comforting her sister.

"Yeah! I bet if we start digging out all of his dirty secrets we will find out he made shameless things throughout his life, maybe since kindergarten! Because you know what people always say, a bad childhood is a step closer to a life of crime, which in his case would certainly be true. I would not be surprised if he had paid for his college diploma, so he would not have to study, which reveals a serious talent to deceive, lie, cheat, steal and trick everyone for the most incredible reasons that we can all imagine." Rev declared.

"P-P-Point taken on t-t-that!" Pinkster said. "A-A-And I know w-w-what I'm t-t-talking about."

"Anyway, I should just leave this for now and get ready for the training." Tech said, slowly getting up from his chair, clearly showing just how tired he was.

"Uh, uh, Tech. You're not attending training today." Ace ordered firmly. "You need your beauty sleep. You earned it!"

"I know, but if I don't attend the training, they might suspect something." Tech objected.

"But nothing, Tech… you need to lie down, relax and catch a few Zzzzs." Duck chimed in.

"I thought you didn't care, Duck." Lexi snorted.

"And I don't, but without his brain power, Tech is as useless as a fish out of water." Duck retorted.

"Now that's weird coming from a Duck, who had his tail feathers kicked by a girl, just yesterday." Sylth said in mild amusement.

"It's unanimous, Tech, you're staying here and getting some rest." Ace insisted.

"Then, you better take this with you." The coyote said, grabbing something that was on the far side of the desk and handed it over to Ace. It was a Holocube, but this one looked a little different from the one they used before. "It's an improved version of the Holocube that I designed. The only difference to the previous one is, this one lasts for more than 16 hours. That way, no one will suspect that I'm missing on the court."

Ace activated the Holocube and, in a split second, a perfect duplicate of Tech appeared in front of them, just like when they used it before, to cover Rev's absence.

"Gotta love these gadgets of yours, Tech." Ace said in amusement. "You really got to."


End file.
